Contact With The Great Unknown
by Ygritte the Huntress
Summary: BtVS/SG-1 Two people with secret identities and no lives connect when they become neighbors. DawnJonas Now with Roswell
1. Alien At Large

Disclaimer: I own nothing of BtVS or SG1. They belong to smarter and richer people than me.

Time line: Takes place generally just after the finale of SG1 and 7 years post Buffy finale.

Spoilers throughout both are possible.

Pairings: Mainly a Dawn/Jonas story with mentions of others, including Buffy/Xander.

AN: I'm going to say right now that I'm not sure of what Jonas' age is meant to be so I'm going to say that he is 33 in my story so that puts him at 27 when he joined SG1. That is young for his profession, but he was a genius with enhanced learning capabilities, so I'm ok with it. I'm also going to say that Dawn was 15 at the end of season 7 of Buffy, making her 22 now. This is my first fic so I'm still feeling my way around. The first two chapters are basically set up for the rest of the story. They give the general background of the characters.This story is unbetaed as of now.

Chapter 1: Alien At Large

Jonas Quinn was learning. He was learning how people of Earth interacted with each other. He was learning what they did for fun, how they spent their time, how their government worked, what the social rituals meant to those who embraced or avoided them. He was learning how NOT to be an alien, and he really wasn't doing very well.

When he first came to Earth he set all his energy to repaying his debt. It was his fault that Dr. Daniel Jackson was dead. His fault that there was no justice for it. It was his fault that the potential good that Dr. Jackson could have done was wasted on saving him from his own mistakes.

That was a huge debt that he spent nearly every waking moment trying futility to repay in the only way he could. Leaving his home planet, where his government was lying to the people, blaming Dr. Jackson for his own death and raising Jonas up as a hero, all the while ignoring his efforts to prevent such things from reoccurring, to come to a place where the only people he knew at all resented his presence and his commander actively disliked him.

So, he came to Earth. He came here and spent his time memorizing his predecessor's work and trying to fill his shoes for a year. His only outside interests had been junk food and television. He finally built up a kind of comfortable friendship with his team, albeit a limited one. And then one day, it was over. Dr. Jackson was back from the dead to refer to his own notes on civilizations and humanity throughout the galaxy and Jonas floundered. When the opportunity to return to his own world came, he took it and hoped that he could affect change and growth among his own people.

But, that was not to be. He was placed as a figurehead to the group responsible for maintaining the peace between the three nations of his planet and he had no voice. He tried to help, he tried to be of use, and eventually he just tried to live his life. It only took three years for him to decide that it was time to make a permanent change. At first he was planning to just retire from all public and government works and find a small town to start over in. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find the peace he desired.

And that is how he found himself once again on Earth. At first it was easy. He had lived and worked in the United States before, so all of the work to give him a legal identity had already been done. Permission from the government to live outside of the confines of Stargate Command had already been established. All he needed to do was ask that it be reinstated and agree to live within the confines of Colorado Springs so that they could keep an eye on him. He traded the location of a small number of naquada mines, on planets that his own people were unwilling or unable to negotiate treaties for rights to mine, for a generous finder's fee so that he was able to live comfortably without needing to rely on the SGC for work or anything else. He wanted to start a new life of his own, away from reminders of his old one.

He bought one of the two estates on the western border of town and with the help of one of his few friends from his days with the SGC, Captain Robert Lewis of SG-8, converted it into a homey inn with slight touches of an old west feel for the tourists. He had a nice home, a business that held it's own and no life. Since his only friend spent a great deal of time off world he tried going out on his own to meet new people. He was racking up a good number of acquaintances that he would chat casually with when he went out, but no real friends outside of Rob. He felt uncomfortable around most of the people he talked to because he still didn't get a lot of the slang and cultural references in everyday American speech. He felt stilted and formal when he was trying to be relaxed and cool. He didn't understand why the superbowl was important. Valentine's Day and Halloween seemed to make no sense. American food just didn't really work for him. Popular gadgets and minor everyday technology made him feel like an idiot. He was starting to get a bit discouraged.

And then he met Dawn.


	2. The Key to Everything

Chapter 2: The Key to Everything.

Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister, great inter dimensional key and operator of the Travel Without Everyday Runaround Portal or TWERP (cause Xander is evil) transport for the Watchers Council. That was all she was. She graduated top of her class from one of the most prestigious schools in Rome with her original class, after having missed almost her entire freshman year of high school, that was an accomplishment. She had gone on to attend Oxford and gotten twin degrees in ancient history and dead languages, coming in at the top 5 percent of her class there, graduating in only 3 years instead of 4, while still training as a watcher under Giles the whole time.

But no matter what her accomplishments were, she was still the tag along little sister. In Rome she was the responsibility that kept Buffy from the carefree lifestyle she craved. Dawn was the baggage that ruined her relationship with the Immortal, who didn't want to stay with someone with a kid, sister or not. In England she was nearly killing herself with classes and training and watching 2 baby slayers who were starting puberty at the same time. But, again, she was a responsibility. Someone had to keep an eye on her. Someone had to scrutinize every move, every decision, she made. She couldn't even take a day and go shopping without someone calling her up and interrogating her on her location, plans, security. Giles even called her in the middle of a class once to make sure she had her umbrella with her. Duh, Giles, who doesn't take their umbrella with them in England, place of daily drizzle.

Then, of course, when she had finally finished her educational marathon, Willow had an epiphany. She rushed all the way from Brazil to drop her bombshell on Dawn on the night of her graduation party.

"Hey Dawnie, congratulations on the super fast and super sized learning." Willow leaned in and hugged a stunned Dawn who had just been having a nice chat with a classmate. Willow had come running into the WC headquarters without a word and run to the conference room where Giles was hosting this small get together, because Dawn couldn't be out gallivanting with college students who knows where, and practically flung herself at Dawn talking a mile a minute. "Listen, something just came to me and I really need to talk to you right away."

And that was the start of TWERP Travel. Willow had come up with a way to access the Key magic in Dawn to open portals to anywhere they wanted. All that was needed was for Dawn to perform a short simple spell and BAM, portal. Of course they didn't ask Dawn if she wanted to be an international shuttle service for the entire WC. It wasn't particularly hard, and only mildly tiring, but getting calls at all hours of the day and night, like "Hey can you pop me over to New York so I can go shopping", was irritating to say the least. And she was lonely. She had her slayers, but no real friends to speak of. She lost contact with her school friends due to her supernatural work and lifestyle, and all the Scoobies had moved on, leaving her behind. The only one to even show up to her graduation or party had been Willow, and she hadn't known about it until she came into the room. Her sister hadn't even called or sent a card. She was off in Africa with Xander and hadn't even been in personal contact with anyone in a year. Apparently they were so caught up in their new life there that calling for anything other than slayer business just slipped their minds. Not that she really blamed them, after 12 years of dating mostly demons it was exciting that they had gotten together and were reveling in their new happiness. And the silence didn't last. All the same, she was not really loving her life.

A year after her graduation she made a decision. She was moving. She wasn't quitting, she loved her slayers way to much to run out on them, but she was relocating the TWERP hub to someplace away from the chaos of HQ and creating a retreat for anyone in the WC who needed a break.

Vacations had always been a problem for them. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't take time off from an apocalypse. Arranging airfare and travel expenses to get people home for the big battle had cut into the budget way to many times, and even after TWERP, dealing with fees for hotels that were booked and bills that were run out on was none to fun. The WC had been discussing a way to just have a place of their own where they could vacation and not have to deal with exorbitant costs for a few months. Dawn decided that she was going to use that has her out. Run a retreat for the WC somewhere with very limited magical and demon activity, and more magic for her to draw on for portals, and be effectively out from under their thumb. She would buy the property, fix it up, and lease it and her services as a manager to the council while still maintaining her position as watcher to Jenny and Robyn and her per trip fees as TWERP Travel. She would be on her own, and still raking in the cash. Hey, she spent a lot of time being babysat by Anya, she knew how to make a good deal, and she knew how to invest. She took her well invested and nicely grown nest egg and bought an estate just outside of Colorado Sprigs, Colorado, near a local inn. The place was quiet, and the inn nearby made it easy to hide the number of people coming and going. Colorado was a dead zone for the supernatural element these days. Apparently the proximity to that many military bases was a bit off putting to the demon element after the Initiative. So it was a place where 2 teenaged slayers on a rotating patrol of the city was more than enough. And besides, hello, portals!!!!

And now she was here. The girls and the movers would be here with the furniture in a week and she was going to get all the details ironed out while staying at the inn down the road.

"Excuse me." She said to the cute guy behind the desk, "My name is Dawn Summers, I have a reservation."

"Of course." he replied with a smile, "Welcome to Independence Place. I'm the owner, Jonas Quinn, and I hope you enjoy your stay."


	3. Not Love at First Sight

Disclaimer can be found in first chapter. Mentions of 2 popular magazines and World of Warcraft in this chapter. Don't own them either.

Chapter 3: Not Love At First Sight.

Dawn knew for certain that love at first sight was crap. Instant attraction, real or magical, could never last. Connections made in the heat of the moment were doomed to fail in the calm that followed. Look at Buffy and Angel's star crossed love, or the two relationships that came out of the battle with the First. Willow and Kennedy couldn't even live on the same continent anymore, and Faith and Robin…. Who hadn't seen a violent and messy end coming there? Of course, they had all thought it would have been the other way around. Then again those weren't really "at first sight", but more heat of battle… The point is, love at first sight is not a valid basis for a lasting happy relationship.

So she would settle for love at second sight.

First meeting, cute guy, smiles, quick convo, done. The second time she ran into him was when things started clicking. It was two days later and she was coming into the lounge area with her head bowed over some paper work for the inspection of Slayer's Rest (this nickname courtesy of Andrew and World of Warcraft apparently). She smacked into the wall as she rounded the corner and looked up as she rubbed her injured arm. She nearly burst into giggles as she saw him sprawled on a couch in front of a window perusing Jane magazine with a serious look.

"Having trouble finding the perfect lip gloss for this season?" She asked trying hard to keep a straight face.

He looked up and blushed slightly, and it was adorable. "Um, no. I – I was trying to find out- Never mind. How are you doing this afternoon Miss Summers?" He quickly dropped the magazine and smiled up at her.

She lost her battle then and gave in to the giggles. "I am so not going to let this go, and call me Dawn." She walked over to him and picked up Jane from where it lay on his chest still open to the page he had been reading. "'How I went from Amish to Amazing.' Did you escape a Mennonite colony and start a new life in the heathen world?" She raised her eyebrows as she asked the question.

He laughed. "Um, no, but I led a very sheltered and unworldly life until recently. So I get lost in a lot of the 'Great American Culture' as it were." He frowned. "Why are there different lip glossed for different seasons? Is it some kind of weather related skin care thing? Never mind, I really don't need to know the answer to that. I don't think so anyway."

"No, you don't. If you are in need of fashion advice, stick with GQ." She laughed as she tossed the offending literature back at him. "I would offer to help with the whole "new to the American Dream" thing, but I've been living in Europe for the past 7 years, so I'm about as lost as you are."

"Really? Sounds like an interesting story. Or is that to nosey?"

"Well, a bit, but I don't mind. I lived in Sunnydale, California until it sank into a crater. Then my sister and I moved to Rome, and after high school was over I went to Oxford and worked in England."

"Isn't Oxford one of those prestigious schools, like the plant ones.""Ivy league." She stared at him, sheltered was an understatement apparently. "Yeah, it is. You don't really think about that kind of stuff when you're spending all your time studying though."

"I know, I went to the top school where I come from, people go on and on about it, but when your there, it's not really a big deal." He frowned, as if the memory was unpleasant. "Anyway, what brings you to Colorado? Vacation? Military thing?"

Dawn rolled with the subject change. 'Doesn't like to talk about his past I guess.' "Neither, I bought the place down the road and I'm converting it into a private retreat for the organization I work for. Just a few more details to work out with the repairs. All the furniture and the girls are coming in a couple of days, then we can settle in and get aquatinted with the town."

"You seem kinda young to have kids."

"Hmm? Oh, no, they're not mine, well they are mine in the 'I'm responsible for them' way, but they are definitely not mine in the 'I gave birth to them' way. I mean, they're teenagers. I'm just the legal guardian person. That is, that's one of the things that my company does, we take in orphan girls with special talents and take care of them. We give them homes with members of the council. Anyway, Jenny and Robyn are 14 and 15 and I am the council member who got to keep them. I'm really proud too. I'm the youngest and I get two of them cause I'm the only one who seems to get along with them. Had them almost 3 years now, Jenny anyway, I got Robyn later. And, hey, overshare. Sorry, I can get babbley when given enough time and air."

Dawn was starting to feel a little gooey. He had the sweetest look on his face. The babble didn't faze him a bit it seemed. And the idea of her having a couple of teens at home didn't make him nervous or put him off. He just looked like a guy who was having a fun and interesting conversation. He even looked like he wanted to know more about her, which never happened after guys found out about the girls. In fact this was the longest conversation she had had with a man, who wasn't firmly in the friend section already, in the last 3 years. Giles and his minions weren't called Watchers for nuthin.

"Don't worry about it. I've been known to speak more than needed myself. And I think it's great to take in someone who needs a fresh start. Happens to the best of us. At least your girls have you. Most don't have anyone."

"Exactly. A lot of my classmates thought I was nuts. I was cramming a double major into a shortened schedule and working for The Watchers Council – that's what it's called – and then I just up and decide at 19 that I want to be responsible for raising a kid, and then another one." She sighed. "My mom died when I was 13 and my sister raised me because my dad was useless and couldn't even find the time to call and see how we were until way after the funeral. I know it's hard to be a teenager without the whole mom thing, and I like being able to be the mature big sister. Can we talk about something eles for a minute, so I'll stop spewing my life story all over you."

"Well, how bout I show you around town. There are a few places that you might need to know, with the kind of place you're running, and I can guarantee that you are not going to run across them on a tour of the teen hotspots. I was dragged to a few of those places by a girl I know a few years ago. You have my condolences for what is to come."

"Great, I need something to take my mind off of things anyway. And, hey, still with the young and fresh here. I'm barely old enough to drink you know. I can still hang with the kids, if I want to. Course, they are way to embarrassed to be seen out with me after the first time when I took my text books with me to study for an exam." He snorted at her. "Hey, it was a really important exam!"

She pouted. "Anyway, I'd love to. Meet back here in about 3 hours so I can go take a look at the house?"

"Sure, the clerk for the evening shift will be in by then."

"Ok, it's a date."

As she was getting in her car she squeed 'I got a date'.

AN: The WoW thing is a reference Pilgrim's Rest, a gutted and ruined inn on the border of The Barrens and the marsh to the east of there that I just can't remember the name of right now. Ok, I'm a nerd, we all knew that coming in. I think I may have issues with the dialogue, you be the judge. And thanks to all my reviewers. You have given me the confidence to keep this up.


	4. Of All the Places On All the Worlds

Disclaimer: I own nothing of value, much less a couple of TV shows to call my very own.

AN: Just so we are clear. Jonas' home world was reported as having fallen to the Ori in season 10 of SG-1. This story is based on the idea that Jonas came back to earth prior (ha, get it?) to that happening. Besides it's obvious that Jonas wasn't there anyway, or the team that worked with him all that time would have given a crap that the place went down.

Chapter 4: Of all the Places On all the Worlds

Jonas wasn't exactly sure how this had happened.

One minute he's having a casual chat with a guest, and the next he's on a date. When he had asked her to go into town with him, he had been unsure of how she would react, so he had been very careful to make it seem casual and friendly. She was the one that jumped to 'date'. That works. Considering the last woman he had actually gotten the courage to ask out had practically laughed in his face and run for the door, he would take what he could get. Not that it was exactly a hardship spending time with Dawn. She was vibrant, and happy, and she really liked to talk. People on Earth, and Kelowna (he never had gotten used to calling it Langara) for that matter really, didn't seem to appreciate talking the way he did. As long as a person was reasonably educated and knew their mind, there was no reason to stifle self expression. And so what if you happened to 'over share'? At least you were willing to share at all. Too many people, in his opinion, withheld. Unless the telling of something would get you evicted from the planet, when you had nowhere left to go, there was nothing not worth telling. Not that everyone was supposed spill their stomachs, or whatever that saying was, but there was no such thing as talking too much, as far as Jonas was concerned.

The date itself wasn't anything spectacular. He had dated before and apparently some things are universal. They drove into town and had dinner, chatted about her business plans and how he had decided that an inn would be a great first business venture. "I needed to do something that I could be hands on with, even without knowing everything about how to run the place. This way I can work as a clerk basically, and leave the management of the money to others while I learn all the details." She apparently found that charming since she grinned at him and nodded.

After dinner, they strolled through a couple of sections of the business district, to get the whole "showing you around" part taken care of. He introduced Dawn to a few places that might be of use to her, laundry service and a grocer who delivered especially, and she told him some interesting things about dead cultures and languages in northern Europe. If she was vague about certain details of her personal history, well so was he. He didn't pry or judge, he had secrets too.

Later in the evening Dawn dragged him into a local theater and got him to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which was particularly surreal for him considering what little he knew about what was going on at the SGC the last couple of years. They laughed and really enjoyed themselves, and he was very comfortable with her sitting close beside him with her head on his shoulder. She even insisted on buying him a copy of the movie on DVD at the FYE around the corner from where they parked his car.

When they reached her room Jonas wasn't really sure what he expected to happen. He stood next to her door as she unlocked it and said "Goodnight, I really had a good time." And then he kissed her softly, and a little longer than he had intended. When he finally pulled away from her she looked so pleased with herself. He was a bit puzzled by that, but then she looked into his eyes.

"That was the first time a guy has ever walked me to my door and kissed me goodnight. I've been on dates, and had guys be nice to me, but it's always been under the shadow of overprotective family and I've never been able to get myself away from that until now." She kissed him back. "Thank you."

As she walked into her room he watched the way her hair moved around her shoulders. When she turned to close the door she stopped and looked at him as he leaned on the door jam. She just stood there and watched him. He was about to turn and walk down the hall when he heard her mutter under her breath, "what the hell". As he tried to figure out what that meant she grabbed his hand and led him into her room closing the door behind them.

He was still a bit dazed by the implications of what just happened as she stood close to him and looked into his eyes.

"Just so we are perfectly clear, I'm not a slut. I didn't go out with you so I could sleep with you, and I'm not really a one night stand type of girl. If that is what you are after you can leave right now, cause if you screw me over, you have no idea what I can make happen in return. Overprotective is just a nice word for what my family can be like."

The look he saw in her eyes was a mix between determination and hope. The only response he could think of was to start kissing her again. Apparently the hope won out because the next movement he was aware of was her pulling him across the room to her bed. When she pulled away from kissing him this time she smiled as she grabbed for her purse. He watched her riffle through it for a moment and yank out 2 cell phones, one she placed on the night stand and the other she turned off and tossed back into her bag. "No non emergency distractions" she explained lightly and started kissing him again.

AN: Ok, get your minds out of the gutter. I'm so not going into what exactly is going on here. I'm sure you get the drift. :)


	5. Right to Privacy is a Cultural Myth

Disclaimer: I'm too poor

AN: The titles of the chapters really don't have any meaning. Just wanted to share.

Chapter 5: Right to Privacy is a Cultural Myth

The sun was stretching just above the window sill when Dawn woke to an irritating sound. The fact that she heard the quiet ringing of her cell phone was not in itself a problem; it was where it was coming from. As quietly and slowly as she could manage, she slid from the soft warm arms around her and made her way to her purse. Snatching the offending phone out she quickly skittered into the bathroom and closed the door before answering it.

"Who, what and how in the hell?" She hissed into the phone.

/Um, hi to you too?/

"Answer the question, or questions, whatever" Dawn said as she sat on the edge of the tub and looked at herself in the mirror opposite. 'wow' she thought, 'waking up with a guy looks damn good on me'

/Um, it's me Willow, I kinda needed to talk to you, and magic/

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Willow, if it's an emergency you should have called my other phone. That's what it's for."

/Well, it's not really an emergency of the apocalyptic variety./

"Ok, well then tell me what is so important, but non emergency, that I can't get a bit of privacy when I want it." She was starting to get mad. She had just spent a whole night with a man in her own bed, sort of, for the first time ever and her happy morning after was being stomped on by an irritating witch with, apparently, no sense of boundaries where she was concerned. 'Bet she never does this to Buffy and Xander, or Faith'

/See, that's kinda it. We were worried about you because you turned off your phone. You know when you got the second phone for TWERP and emergencies, we kinda thought you were kidding./

"Cause, I'm known as the kind of person who would go through all the effort of getting the phone, handing out the number to everyone and keeping it with me at all times for a joke?" What the fuck was with these people. "Willow, call me back In 3 hours and we will talk about this. Right now I'm going back to bed. The phone was off because i was in bed and you guys aren't used to my being on this side of the Atlantic yet, so I knew someone would wake me up without thinking. Don't call me again until then unless it is actually important, and no more magically adjusting my cell phone. It's rude"

With that Dawn slammed the slider of her phone down and disconnected the call, nearly screaming in frustration. She turned her phone off again, and just for good measure she removed the battery and left them side by side on the counter by the sink. She was going to just slide back into bed, but decided to quickly brush her teeth, just in case.

As she made her way to the bed she watched Jonas as he slept. God, he was a-freaking-dorable. She still wasn't sure what she has been thinking last night. He was just so sweet, so earnest, and that first kiss was so full of longing and restrained passion that she didn't want to lose the contact. By the time she had decided to bring him into the room she already knew what was going to happen. Hell, even if had balked at her little disclaimer she probably would have dragged him back in here anyway. The only reason she had said it in the first place was to placate her own feelings of guilt about sleeping with a guy on the first date. She was NOT going to be THAT girl. Ok, so she has sort of been that girl for a while there in college. But that was college, and really, what had been her options. In high school the reigns had been looser only because Buffy was enjoying her own freedom and didn't notice if Dawn was out a little too often. She had still said no to the dating thing, but Dawn had gotten away with having a boyfriend for 4 months before she caught on that something was up. Of course, by then Dawn had already had sex with him and decided the whole secrecy bit was really the only thing the kid had going for him besides the hormones. The next boyfriend had been a little better on the compatibility front, but had not lasted as long due to Buffy finally settling down a bit, thus noticing the discrepancy in her "study" schedule a lot quicker. After that it was lockdown. When she had gone to Oxford things had not improved and so she had taken to going to parties and picking up drunk frat boys, or hooking up with classmates and study partners. That was not something she was proud of, and she really wanted a real adult relationship now. She was not a child, or a stifled youth anymore. Unfortunately, her hormones and her sensibility had been at war last night and the hormones won. But, hey, so far not regretting it.When she slipped under his arm and cuddled up close to him Jonas just shifted and held her close as he continued to sleep.

Nope, not regretting it one bit.


	6. Everyone Want's Normal Sometimes

**Everyone Wants Normal Sometimes**

Disclaimer: Not mine, even Atlantis, which is briefly mentioned in this chapter.

AN: You know what, this chapter title might have a smidgen of meaning after all. Go figure.

Chapter 6: Everyone Wants Normal Sometimes.

Jonas was happy with every aspect of his life for the first time since he met the people of Earth. Not that they could help it, and it was definitely not their fault, but they burst his bubble. So now he was here without a bubble of denial or expectation and he was just as happy. It was almost a week since their first date and so far there had been nothing but good moments. He had been nervous after their first night together, but the look on Dawn's face when he woke up wrapped around her was very reassuring. That first morning had been a little awkward, but only in the 'I have no idea what to do now' way that was typical for him. She said that no one had ever spent the night before, so she was as lost on the protocol as he was. They decided that they would figure it out, and it would be easier next time. She seemed pretty sure they would have plenty of time to work on it, which made him extremely happy. They had gone out and come back to her room for the night the next 2 days, and she had been right, the awkward went away with practice. After that he decided that she should come over to his cottage near the back edge of the property and hang out. That worked out so well that they spent most of the next 4 days there together, only going out to work. Now it was time for her to move herself and her girls into her new home and he really didn't want her to go. It was only down the road, but it felt like something special was coming to an end and they would never be able to get it back.

The fact that their relationship was shiny and new was the reasonable explanation for the euphoria that he had been in since that first night, but somehow it just felt special. It was way too soon to know what, if anything, they could be to each other in the long run, he knew that, and he was just enjoying things as they came. That's why he was standing in the parlor of her house helping her check items off her list of 'moving in stuff'. She had gotten a bit misty eyed when he offered to help her today and hadn't answered him at first. He started to think that maybe she didn't want him there when she suddenly kissed him fiercely and said, "Thank you so much Jonas. It really means a lot that you offered, and I would love you to be there, but I think that I would be best if I dealt with the girls on my own. They will be following the moving trucks with a family friend of mine, and I want him gone and them settled before I talk to them about you."

He understood her wanting to keep their fast moving relationship from prying eyes. She had mentioned the way her family tended to smother and stifle her. And he understood that it would be a new thing for her to have a man around the girls. So here he was getting things finished so he could go back to work before people showed up.

After all the ducks were lined up (she laughed when he said that, and he smiled because he had done it on purpose to make her laugh) he headed off down the drive. As he wound his way through the trees he passed a car coming up to the house. When he looked into the car he saw a skinny blond man driving with one hand and wrestling something out of the hand of a pale brunet girl who couldn't be more than 5 feet tall considering the way she was stretched across the back passenger seat and into the headspace of the driver's seat. Meanwhile, the other girl, an also pale redhead whose hair seemed to go on forever, just looked annoyed and smacked the brunet on the back of the head before grabbing her and shoving her back into the back seat. Jonas nearly laughed as he passed them up and turned onto the road toward his own home. These girls seemed fun. He couldn't wait to meet them.When he reached the lane that led from the main drive of the inn to his own cottage he saw a car pulling in ahead of him.

When he reached the house the driver was already sitting on the porch swing waiting for him.

"Hey Jonas, what's up?"

"Not a lot, how have you been Cassie? Haven't seen you in a few weeks. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing specific. Just having a few issues with Sam and Daniel and didn't want to get you in the middle of it."

He sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder as she leaned into him for comfort. "What kind of problems?"

"Daniel has been after me for months to commit to a job at the base. He wants me to be a research assistant until I get my degree and then come in full time. He thinks that with Sam leaving I need to be more integrated into the staff there. I told him I'd think about it, but I don't think that working on the base is a good idea. I mean, mom died working there. And I just want to be like other college kids. I already have this huge secret that I have to keep from the whole world; I don't want to add more top secret stuff on top of all that. And what if I wanted to move away some day? You're an adult and they wouldn't even let you leave the city. There is a whole planet I can explore and I'm stuck in the springs."

She sighed and sounded on the verge of tears. "Sam's leaving. Did you know about them sending her to Atlantis? She's so concerned that I can't take care of myself she started asking people to move into the house to keep an eye on me. I've barely moved back in myself and she's opening the place up to strangers without even consulting me. And I don't think I want to stay there anyway, it's too hard. The only reason I moved back there anyway is because everyone told me it was a waste to get an off campus apartment when I owned a house nearby. I really don't know what to do. I'm 'this' close to calling Jon and asking him to get them off my back. I miss Jack too. At least Jon is still around though."

Jonas frowned and rubbed her arm. "I know it's hard to deal with everyone hovering, but it's just because they care. Since I've been back I've seen how much they love you. You don't have to work at the base, and you don't have to stay here if you don't want to. The reason I'm here is because it's part of the agreement that I made when I came back. You never agreed to that. Janet MIGHT have signed something when she adopted you, but you are an adult now, and you are not bound by something your mother signed without your knowledge. And I seriously doubt it ever came up anyway. If you aren't comfortable at your house you should either rent it out or sell it. I'm sure there are plenty of military families that would love a place near the base."

He kissed her forehead and chuckled softly. "Hey, have you talked to Jon lately?"

She shook her head. "Not since he graduated. He said he was going to try to get into the academy, but they were questioning his background and he needed to get some higher ups to look into it. That was a few months ago."

"Well, he got his issues worked out, but they had already started their term, so he has to wait till next year to start, so he's going to need a job and a place to stay once the summer is over because that's when the Air Force stops funding him."

"Who's gonna hire a smart ass teenager with the knowledge of a senior citizen and the mentality of a first grader?" She was laughing now, which was why he had changed the subject in the first place.

"Me."

"WHAT?"

"Well, you're the one who made him sound like a freak. I'm sort of a friend, and I need someone to be a night manager at the inn. Summer is not the biggest tourist season here, but I have other things to do with my time than stay up there every night. I've had the night housekeeper working as a desk clerk every night this past week. And the job comes with one of the two apartments on the top floor as a perk."

"What's with that anyway?"

"They were already there when I bought the place. Would have cost more to refit that floor that it would have been worth."

"Jonas?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Hey, how did you know what I was going to ask?"

"Alien mind reading power."

"I'm an alien too. And if one of us was going to have that power, I think it would be me."

"Good point. I know you want out of that house, and you seem lonely with Sam leaving and Daniel always under a mountain that you want no part of, so it seemed logical that you would want to come out here and stay with people you know. And you know that we won't hover."

She nodded and then stilled and scrunched up her forehead as she added up a few things in her head. "How long have you needed a night manager?"

"A month actually. The last guy quit and I was living up there to take up the slack for a while."

"And when did you talk to Jon?"

"Couple of weeks ago. Why?" He could feel the activity of her brain and it was rather disconcerting that it was all focused on him.

"When is Jon moving in?"

"Day after tomorrow. And again, why?"

"Well, if you had been staying up there for three weeks, and he was going to be here so soon, why screw with the housekeeper? Unless you really do have other things to do." She stood up and turned to look at him, a wicked grin on her face. "You've been busy, every night, for a week. YOU'VE GOT A GIRLFRIEND! Oh my god, you've been with a girl every single night for a week. Seriously? Am I right?"

Jonas nodded dumbly. How had she figured that out like that? She sat back down and demanded information. They sat and talked about Dawn for a few minutes and then made plans for Cassie to move to the inn's second apartment. After a long while they went inside and he made her dinner, followed by a showing of The Holy Grail since she hadn't seen it either. "You know that's kinda creepy right?" After that Cassie crashed out in his guest room and he called and talked to Dawn about her day before turning in himself.


	7. What the Heart Needs

Disclaimer: Who are we kidding here? Obviously if I owned these shows certain characters would have been a bigger focus.

AN: I had no idea that good reviews were like positive peer pressure. Cool. I'm glad that so many people are enjoying the cast additions that I made last chapter. I'm not really going to be bringing in anymore major roles to the story though, just cameos and stuff from here on out.

Chapter 7: What the Heart Needs

When Dawn hung up the phone after her call to Jonas that night she was in a good mood. Jenny and Robyn had arrived undamaged and having not murdered Andrew, the movers hadn't damaged anything, and Jonas had been cool about not meeting the kids yet. If the day had gone any better, she would have worried about impending doom. Good thing a prolonged argument between the girls and Andrew, that had apparently started days ago, had kept things from being too perfect.

Now, however came the hard part. Now Dawn had to talk to the girls about Jonas, and get them to keep their mouths shut. It was a really good thing that she had already sent Andrew home via portal a couple of hours ago. He had never been good with the secret keeping thing, and the one time that he had actually been able to do it, well, he had nearly been beaten to death by a posse of pissed off slayers. Keeping Spike's resurrection a secret from Buffy was hurtful, keeping it a secret from Vi, Rona, and Caridad was moronic. They hadn't developed any amount of self control yet. After that fiasco, resulting in both Spike and Angel getting dropped hard on their asses when they showed up on Buffy and Dawn's doorstep and not showing their faces to anyone outside of the US again, Andrew was just too scared to keep anything from the slayers. Who knew that any of the Sunnydale potentials had actually bonded with the crazy souled vampire anyway? Which brought up the point that since she was now on his turf, Spike might actually drop by. What the hell would she do then? AHH, just focus on the here and now, don't borrow trouble.

Anyway, getting the girls to agree to keep her new relationship quiet wasn't really her worry. Her real worry was that they would slip, or one of the visitors would notice something and rat her out. She was being a bit paranoid, but she was convinced that the second any of the Scoobies knew that she had a boyfriend and that they slept together, a lot, someone was going to show up on her doorstep, or his, and ruin it. Right now she just wanted to enjoy the peace that she had bought with this change of life, and that included having a personal life that was not ruled by the expectations and judgments of her family.

Putting her cell phone on the coffee table and getting up from the couch where she had been ensconced for the past 45 minutes, working herself into a state of panic, she stretched and went into the kitchen, where Robyn and Jenny were munching on what was left of their road trip junk food supply. She jumped up on the counter next to Jenny and stole a cookie from the bag in Robyn's hand as the teen walked by her and seated herself on a stool near Dawn's feet at the kitchen island.

"Ok, there are a few things about our new situation here that we need to get straightened out right away." She stated, trying to project an air of authority. "I know that being out here on our own, without a bunch of other slayers and their watchers in our space seemed exciting, but I also know that the idea of meeting a bunch of new people and having to keep a big chunk of who we are is kinda scary."

As she said that last part she put her arm around Jenny's shoulders and squeezed. Jenny had come to them from a group home in Canada at the age of 10. She had been social awkward and shy due to her childhood bouncing from one family to the next, with stints as short as 3 weeks sometimes, since she was 2. She had been so withdrawn that a few of the watchers had suggested that she was mentally ill, or handicapped. It hadn't helped that the environment at the WC at the time was much like the group home they had found her in. All the girls living together in dorms until arrangements could be made to get them into a more home like situations. Dawn had known that she could help her, but met with a lot of resistance. They all thought she was too young to be responsible for a child, and she was working at a frantic pace with her education. It had taken 6 months to get them to hand the then 11 year old girl into her care. She had dedicated herself to making Jenny feel loved, and wanted. She was Dawn's first priority, and they were family. Jenny even started calling her mom when they were alone, and Dawn loved it that she had such a close bond with a kid who wasn't even a decade her junior. Giles had nearly had a coronary when she had asked that legal guardianship be put in her hands so that she could be sole caregiver. Now, 3 years later, she was the only stable figure in the girl's life, and she understood how much change disturbed her.

Robyn was a completely different story. She had come to the council's attention at 13. Her family was a lower middle class happy home. Dawn had gone herself to Florida to meet with them and give the whole slayer speech. When Robyn had found out that she was not losing her mind, her dreams and strength were real, she had been ecstatic. When she had told them that there was a special school, with a world class education and no fee, for the girls, the whole family had nearly cheered. After a few hours of negotiating visits and ground rules the Hansly's had agreed to send Robyn to England, but only if Dawn agreed to be personally responsible for her. When Dawn had decided that she was leaving she had gone to Valrico to see them personally and explain what she was doing. They had been very understanding and agreed that Robyn should join her, as long as she was enrolled in a good private school and continued to be home for long weekends and holidays.

Robyn had been thrilled; she missed America and couldn't wait to be back. She also wanted to get away from the watchful eyes of all those people. She wanted to live someplace more like her home, with a small core group and everyone else just visiting. Robyn really enjoyed living with Dawn. She was like a big sister who taught her stuff and kept an eye out for her. She loved it when just the 3 of them went on a patrol together, not that they got to do that often with the number of slayers that needed the practice. With Dawn and Jenny, it was like having a second family, but without someone who was not her mom trying to by all mothery.

Jenny was nervous, but she trusted her mom to look out for her. She had been happy at their apartment in HQ, but she knew Dawn was excited to have a place all her own. Plus, now that they were a continent away from Mr. Giles and the council, she could call Dawn mom any time she wanted to without worrying that someone would disapprove. Apparently it was ok for them to change her last name from Green to Summers, but she was supposed to keep a bit of distance from her watcher. 'Bugger that.' she thought as she leaned into the hug.

"So," Dawn continued after a long pause, "first thing we are going to do is get this mess cleaned up, and then I'm going to show you our house." She gave about 3 seconds for that to sink in and waited for their responses.

"What do you mean our house? We get a house? I thought we were just getting a suite of rooms to share. We get a house?" came from Robyn, while Jenny just looked up and said, "Cool."

Dawn hopped down from the counter and helped the girls throw out their trash and put the remaining food away."Grab your bags and follow me"

As they walked out the kitchen door and down the gravel path, Dawn let herself get excited. The house was a huge surprise that she had spent months getting ready for them. When she first came to inspect the property, she had indeed planned on them sharing a suite on the top floor of the old mansion. But the more she thought about it the more that kind of defeated the purpose of them moving thousands of miles to have their own place in the world. Going from living in a small apartment in the same building as ¾ of the entire Watchers Council, to living in an even smaller suite in the same building as all of them and more would be passing through constantly was really self defeating. So, she got the plans out and looked for an alternative. What she found was a huge stable that she would have never used. She got a separate architect and construction crew together and used a big chunk of her private savings to organize the renovation. She had decided that there was no reason to have her personal home lumped in with the Council's business. That and she wanted to have final say in all aspects of her house, something which wouldn't have happened if it had been part of the work that Giles was overseeing.

Outwardly, the house still looked like the Stable it once was, except for the fact that the huge doors weren't real anymore. Instead there was a red door with beveled glass panels to one side. Dawn opened the door and led the girls inside.

"Those big doors are just for show, but there is a set of rolling doors that do work in the back off the family room. There are huge screens back there so we can leave them open if we want. Your stuff, and all our personal furniture and everything, was ported over here last week, separate from the stuff for the big house. Your rooms are all set up and ready to go. Robyn, your room is down here. I made sure you have a private bathroom, and that your room is big and comfortable. Jenny, you and I are upstairs. On one side of the hall is my room and my bathroom. Your room is right across from mine. Your bathroom is shared with the guest room, but there is no hall door, so it's practically private. There is a good sized half bath off the family room and kitchen for guests so no worrying about people in your personal space for the most part. Now go put your stuff in your rooms and meet me in the family room for our rules and new cool plans conversation."

As the girls ran to drop their stuff in their rooms, Dawn went and made hot chocolate for them. When that was done she went and got comfortable to wait for them. Most of the stuff in the house was the stuff that had been in their apartment at HQ. The only big purchases she had made for their home were a nice living room suite, a dining room suite and new furniture for Robyn and the guest room. She kept her old bedroom and Jenny kept the furniture from her and Robyn's room, minus the second bed, which was now the guest bed, with the rest of the room built around that. The living room and dining room stuff from the apartment were now in the family room and breakfast nook, and all the same dishes and things were in the kitchen. She wanted the transition to be as easy as possible in that way, they were going to have enough changes to deal with.

Jenny came running in, followed by a more sedate Robyn. They grabbed their mugs and got ready for the big moving talk that Dawn had promised them.

"Ok, in two weeks you guys are going to be starting school at Colorado Springs Christian Academy. It's a really good private school, and their classes start at 10 in the morning instead of 8, so that means a bit more sleep after patrols. There will be uniforms, you will wear them, and you will just have to deal with looking dorky in class."

Robyn rolled her eyes and groaned, while Jenny just giggled.

"Second thing is patrolling. I already explained that there is very little activity here, so we are going to be doing one random graveyard and a section of town per patrol. We aren't going to patrol every night, just 3 random nights a week. It's gonna be kinda boring, but you guys are young and we don't need to be running ourselves into the ground anyway. This means that you do get a date night every week." Robyn looked giddy. She sat forward in her seat and pulled her long red hair around over one shoulder so that it fell near the middle of her stomach. She looked like she was going to get up and do a little dance any second. "One each week. I will make sure you know at least a couple of weeks in advance which nights we are going to be patrolling, so you can make plans. If there is a specific event you wanna go to, we can discuss it and see if we can work it out. Robyn, you already know the conditions for you dating and you have spent a big chunk of your summer vacation at home getting lectured by your parents about responsibility with boys. I will be reporting to them, so behave. Jenny, if you want to date we'll work it out then. You are still kind of young for that, but you can come to me about it when you're ready. Ok?"

Both girls nodded vigorously and smiled.

"Good. Next thing is guests. If you guys want to have friends come over, even just normal school friends, they are welcome any time. Just let me know so I can have food and stuff ready. This isn't like HQ, we don't have to hole up here and be all self contained. The only rules about having friends over are, 1, I have to be here if there are any boys in the house, and 2, all friends come here and not to the big house. We are keeping our lives separate from the slayers coming in and out of there. Plus, they are on vacation; they don't need to deal with keeping up some kind of act because a bunch of kids show up out of the blue. Each of you will have chores, just like before, there will be a small staff to cook and clean over at the mansion, but they are not cleaning up after us. Allowances are the same, responsibilities are the same, house rules are the same. Understand all that?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Ok."

Dawn took a deep breath. Now the hard part. "The one huge change we are going to be making is about privacy." Both girls looked a little confused, but she definitely had their undivided attention. "This is our home, nobody else gets a say in how we handle our family. I know that both of you have been asked, by lots of people over the years, about where we go, who we see, what time we go to bed, even what we have for dinner."

Both girls frowned and nodded slowly.

"No more of that. We don't answer personal questions about each other anymore. If you want to share things about your day, or your life, that is up to you, but, if someone asks you about what the other, or I, do with our time, no dice. I have had enough of being scrutinized and not being able to have a normal life. Robyn, the only people that you HAVE to answer to are your parents and me. Buffy, Giles, Martin, any of the WC people, have no say in how we raise you. Jenny, you are mine. I know you love Buffy and Xander and all of them, but if they start to pressure you about stuff, tell them to talk to me. This is something that has been bothering me for a while, but the biggest reason I'm bringing this up right now is that I've started seeing someone here in Colorado, and I want to keep it just between us. There is no reason for anyone to know about who I spend my time with, except you guys. I want to have a normal relationship, without them messing it up for me, and I want for you guys to have that too. If we don't stand firm now, you guys will still dealing with it when you're my age. Do either of you want to have them breathing down you're necks the way they do me?"

Robyn crossed her arms and both of them shook their heads.

"I don't like it much either. So, if anyone asks about me dating, you say?"

"Ask Dawn." Said Robyn.

Jenny looked thoughtful for a moment and, smiling, said, "I don't know. How is your sex life these days?"

Dawn laughed and nodded in the direction of the cute little brunet. "Nice, nobody will know how to react to that."

She leaned back on the couch and looked at her watch. "It's pretty late, and I think I've covered all the bases. Any questions before we go to bed?"

Both girls smiled at her and bombarded her with questions about Jonas, and what exactly was going on with them. She gave them the PG version of events and promised them that they would meet him soon, then rushed them off to bed before taking care of their dishes and going to bed in her own room for the first time.

AN: Ok, so this was super long, and big with the exposition. Oh well, how are we gonna give a crap about these kids if we have no idea who the hell they are.


	8. The One Thing

Disclaimer: I am now officially the owner of 1 large box of Frosted Flakes. Grocery shopping RULES. Sadly, I still own no part of Stargate or Buffy.

AN: I fudged around a bit with ages again. I only know that Cassie was 12 in season 1 of SG-1 and that Jon the clone was about 15 in season 7.

Chapter 8: The One Thing

Cassie Frasier wasted no time or opportunity. The very first thing she did when she woke up the next morning was drive up to the inn and claim her new home. If Jon had planned on living in one of the apartments in particular, well she hoped it wasn't the one she picked, because she was here now, and she was marking her turf first.

Cassie had liked this house the first time she saw it. It was originally built at the turn of the 20th century by some rich businessman as a vacation home for his obscenely large family. It was 4 stories, if you included the large attic where the 2 apartments were, and had a massive wraparound porch on the first 2 floors. The place had stayed in the same family from the beginning until the most recent heir had decided to liquidate a number of properties around the country, including the Victorian manor house down the road which she had inherited from her mother's family. Apparently her parents had met here and their marriage had been so tumultuous that she only had bad memories of either of the places. It was pretty sad, but as long as she was selling, it was great that Jonas had found something to do with his life that he seemed to really like. And, if the buyer of the other property just so harppened to be someone he was deeply attracted to, so much the better.

As she reached the door that separated the attic stairs from the third floor corridor, Cassie started making a list of the things she would need to do to sell her own house. She really had loved growing up there after she came to Earth, but it hadn't felt right after the death of her mom. Sam would be disappointed that she was getting rid of the place though. Maybe she would rent it out, as Jonas had suggested, she would ask Sam about the practicality of that later. But she wasn't going to talk to her or Daniel until after she had moved out. No need to give them time to try and talk her out of it.

The attic hall was more of a niche, or like a indentation. There was a 8 foot long and 6 foot wide carpeted space with 2 doors on opposite walls. Cassie picked the door on the left at random and dug out the keys she had snatched from the drawer in Jonas' desk and tried one. That one didn't work, so she switched to the other one and opened the door wide so she could have a look around. It was a large open area that seemed to be a living/dining room with a kitchen area on one side, separated from the bigger space by an island with bar stools bolted to the floor on the outer side. There were appliances, kinda oldish, but they looked workable. She wandered over to one of the two gabled windows and propped a knee up on the window seat to look out. The windows looked out on the front of the building and the parking lot below. Crossing the room to the one interior door she noticed that the carpet was a bit worn. The bedroom was average sized with a door that led to the one bathroom that had an old fashioned tub, with shower head, toilet, one pedestal sink, crappy lighting, and a walk in closet. She shrugged her shoulders and went out across the hall, leaving the door standing open. The other apartment was basically the same as the first. The only difference was that the windows looked out into the woods behind the house, the floor was old wood that hadn't been varnished or waxed in a very long time, and there was a half bath off the living area. Deciding that at least she didn't have to let people into her bathroom, she went back across to the other apartment's door and closed it, leaving the key in the lock for Jon. She ran downstairs to the big supply closet off the main kitchen and grabbed some cleaning supplies and went to work getting all the dust built up over the last year of disuse cleared out of her new home.

At around noon she went back to Jonas's cottage and dragged him out for lunch. After a bite at Millie's he went with her and helped her start packing up the stuff of her mom's that she wanted to keep in storage and the stuff she was giving to the local Salvation Army. That only took a couple of hours, since she had never actually unpacked most of the things that had been boxed up and stored years before. When Janet Frasier died, Cassie had gone to live with her best friend Sam Carter and her friends had stored all but the largest furniture until a time when something permanent was decided about her estate, or Cassie wanted to move back in. Since Cassie hadn't actually wanted to come back, she hadn't bothered to mess with anything she didn't actually need. At around 4 she called Jon to see if he needed any help getting his stuff together for the moving truck the next day and they went to his little studio apartment to help him.

Jon had been thrilled when she told him she was going to be his neighbor. He had always cared a lot for Cassie and, even in a body that was younger than her; he had a paternal kind of protective instinct about her. Hell, according to the records the government had dummied up for him, he was an 18 year old recent high school graduate\, and Cassie was going on 22 and entering her senior year of college. But, no matter how much he wanted to look out for her, he knew not to get in her space. That's why he had gone a while without calling; he didn't want to be clingy. She was an adult and she needed to make her own life. Jack had known that too, they were the same person for crying out loud, but it seemed like Sam and Daniel had missed the memo. Sam had even given up going off world for a while to be more available to her.But now Cassie was taking a stand, and he was damn proud.At around 7 Jonas went back to the inn to get some work in and Cassie and Jon went out and had dinner. Cassie thought it would be a lot of fun to tell Jon all about Jonas' new found love life.

"It's kinda strange. I mean, she's like almost the same age as me. Can you imagine me going out with someone Jonas' age?"

"You do know that Jack is at least a couple of decades older than Jonas, right? You can't call him old without insulting original recipe me."

"He's not old, old. Just too old to date. I wouldn't date Jack either. Or you for that matter."

"What's wrong with me?"

"Well, your both too old for me, and too young. And I've known you since I was a little kid. That's just weird."

"I'll accept that answer."

After a while of listening to her gossip about it, Jon decided that he had heard enough."Jonas is a good guy, and now your landlord; I think it's good that he's dating. Leave him be. And don't tell Sam and Daniel about it. They'll just go all government secrets and do background checks and stuff. If someone put 2 kids in her care, then she's obviously not a criminal or anything, at least not like an axe murderer. Leave it be. Besides, first sign of anything hinky and I'll go all black ops on her. Deal?"

"Ok, deal."

The next day Jon packed all his stuff, not much really, in the truck he had rented for the day and moved in. They all agreed that Cassie should get a group of guys together for a moving party that weekend since she had more large furniture than Jon did, and it had been hell to get his stuff up the stairs.

During the 2 days that Jonas was helping his new tenants move, Dawn was putting her slayers to work as well. On their first full day in Colorado Springs Jenny and Robyn were hard at work getting the manor ready for business. The 3 of them went from room to room placing and arranging the furniture that the movers had stacked here and there on both floors. By the end of that first day they had set up all 4 downstairs bedrooms, parlor, kitchen, dining room, entertainment room, both downstairs bathrooms, and 3 of the upstairs bedrooms. On the second day they set up the other 7 upstairs bedrooms, all 5 upstairs bathrooms, and the basement with its 1 bedroom, bathroom and the gym. Both girls were totally exhausted by the time they were done, and Robyn was seriously hating rich people.

"I mean, come on, what one family really needs this much space for a vacation house? Really? I know you added a couple of bedrooms and half the bathrooms, but this place is seriously too much."

Dawn Just rolled her eyes and went back to making dinner.That night she called Jonas for the first time in 2 days, and fell asleep with the phone still in her hand.

AN: Transition chapter HOOOOO!!!!!! LOL.


	9. Tripping Over the Wires

Disclaimer: I already ate half my box of Frosted Flakes, damn it.

AN: Here is a freebie

Chapter 9: Tripping Over the Wires

It was Sunday night and Jonas was sitting on his couch watching a movie with Dawn curled up beside him. They hadn't seen each other for a while and they were just enjoying the closeness while they could. It seemed like their private little party had been crashed, and now they had to be responsible again. Cassie and Jon were all moved in, Jenny and Robyn were settled, and now they had to settle for dating like normal people instead of spending every night together. Not that he minded dating; he just missed the closeness they had had in that first week.

For her part, Dawn was blissful. She had everything she could possibly want at the moment. She turned her head and saw that Jonas was watching her instead of the movie. She smiled up at him and leaned up for a kiss. After that things got more heated and they spent the next hour or so making love. The night ended all too soon and Dawn kissed him goodnight and made her way home.

-------------------------------------------------------

The next day she had the girls on the front lawn doing warm up and movement exercises in the sun. It was a beautiful day and both girls were way to pale. Robyn's mother, Drea, had mentioned it when she called last week to check in. As someone used to the Florida sunshine, it was weird to see her usually tanned daughter looking so white. Unfortunately Robyn's vacation had been overrun with rain, and she hadn't been able to work on it. Now Dawn was intent on getting the girls used to real sunshine every day.

They were going through a series of yoga poses when Dawn looked up and saw a young man standing near the gate, looking at them, or looking at her to be more precise. It was a cute guy, a little young, but cute. He had light brown hair and brown eyes and he was smiling at her as she stood and made her way down to the front gate.

"Hi, can we help you?"

"Um, no. I was just admiring you and your sisters. You guys have very nice form, your work out I mean." He started to get a little flustered when he heard himself talking. "I was just jogging by here earlier and you guys were doing fighting forms and now you're doing yoga. Intense."

"Just doing our basic warm ups and stretching for the more intense martial arts stuff we enjoy. Must have been a long jog if your just passing again now."

"Sort of." Jon didn't want her to know that he had actually passed here 3 times already, doubling back on his run so he could see what they were doing. Seeing the 3 of them striking the graceful poses had stirred up his teenaged hormones in a major way. Being this young again could be a real bitch.Just then the younger brunet yelled across the yard. "Hey, we're done!"

The beautiful older girl he was speaking with looked over her shoulder and answered, "Ok, go get started inside then. You only have to do a half hour today. When you're done we can go school shopping."

The redhead girl smiled brilliantly. "Cool, thanks Dawn."

The other girl bounced slightly on the balls of her feet. "Can we get some CD's and stuff too?"

"It's your allowance." Dawn replied.

"Great, thanks mom."Dawn rolled her eyes and looked back at their guest. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Jon was slightly stunned. Mom? What the hell? After a couple of seconds staring at Dawn the gears in his head started to click. Young, hot, lives down the road, 2 girls, Dawn. "Hey, your Jonas' girlfriend right?"

She looked startled so he backtracked a bit. "I'm Jon, I work for him and he mentioned you to me. I had no idea who you were until the redhead said your name."

Dawn was slightly mollified. She remembered Jonas mentioning that 2 of his young friends were living at the inn now, and that one was working for him there. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah – " Whatever he was about to say was cut off by the cell phone in her pocket ringing out the tune to "Magic Carpet Ride".

"I really gotta get this, See you around." She waved as she strode purposefully up to the house speaking into her phone. Jon shrugged and finished his jog back to the inn.

By the time she made it to the basement gym Dawn was fuming. "No, Giles, I am not just hiring people off the street to work here."

/I was only trying to ascertain what kind of security we can expect there./

"Ok, well rest assured that I am taking care of the staff issue. I hired a nice half demon named Lara to do the cooking and normal cleaning. If we have a full house, she will bring in a couple of her kids to help out. They are only a quarter demon, and they all look human, so now worries there. I hired Wiccan apprentice as a gardener. His magic is pretty limited, but he is a mean lawn mower. I'm sending the linens out for washing and the groceries are being delivered. All taken care of."

/Well, all right then, as long as you are certain that you need no assistance./

"Sure. More than sure. So, where did you need to go?"

/Um, yes, I need to get to Cleveland as soon as is feasible. If you don't mind./

"No problem, I'll open a portal into your office in 20 minutes. You get a half hour layover to check out the new digs, and then portal into the living room at the Cleveland house. That work for you?"

/Quite. Thank you for your assistance my dear./

Dawn smiled. "Sure thing. See you then, bye."

When she hung up the phone she called the girls over. "Giles is portaling to Cleveland, so you have 20 minutes to get cleaned up and meet me in the parlor."Both girls gave a squeal and ran up the stairs and slammed the back door as they sped down the gravel path to the house.

------------------------

Giles was rather confused by Dawn of late. Ever since she had come up with this idea to have a retreat for the WC she had been almost a different person. She had thrown herself into it, and slowly begun cutting herself off from their world. Since the moment she left she had been distant, and even Robyn and Jenny wouldn't discuss what was going on there. Although he did admit that the only questions that anyone refused to answer were about the personal lives of the others. And the downright embarrassing way Jenny deflected the questions was rather irritating. Buffy had called the previous day and complained that Dawn was ignoring her calls. Xander got emails, but most of those were all business, and the only things she wanted to talk about had to do with the girls. Andrew had been the one to inform him of Dawn's plans to adopt Jenny outright. That he had learned from Jenny herself when she called him the other night. He didn't know what was going on with her, but he hoped that he would find out today.

--------------------------------------

The spell to create a portal was short, just a few words, spoken over a bowl filled with burning herbs. It took only a moment to complete, and it worked instantly. One second your looking into space, and the next there is a soft blue shimmering coming from nowhere. Step through and your there. The only limitation that Dawn had ever had with it was the necessity of her being on one end of the spell. She couldn't open a portal directly from London to Cleveland unless she was in London or Cleveland. This meant that there was the need for 2 separate portals for every journey that she wasn't present for. Not a big deal, it only took an extra 3 minutes for a rush job, but it meant that if there was someone she was avoiding, she could only do it so long.

So, 19 minutes exactly after she hung up her phone, she was doing the spell and not happy about it. Oh well, he was bound to show up here soon anyway, might as well get it over with. The girls stood back a bit, and within a few seconds Giles was standing next to the couch with a duffel bag in one hand and a laptop bag in the other.The girls grinned and waved. "Hi, Giles." They corused before giving him quick hugs.

"Hello ladies. How have you been?"

"Great." Enthused Jenny.

"Excellent." Robyn added.

"Glad to hear it. Why don't the two of you show me around."

They both looked to Dawn and she nodded, "Make sure to show him your rooms." She wanted to let them know that it was ok to take him to the house, without ruining the surprise. They giggled and grabbed a hand each; pulling him along behind them.Giles was impressed with the look of Slayer's Rest. It was large enough for a good sized group to stay, but cozy enough that only a few would still feel comfortable. When they finished touring the second floor he asked the girls where their rooms were. They took him down to the basement and showed him the special windowless room and the gym. "That still doesn't answer my question."

"We know, just wanted to get this out of the way before go outside."

He raised his eyebrows at Robyn's odd statement, but followed them out none the less. When they got to the stable and opened the door he was stunned. He had never considered that they would have their own separate home here. Of course it made perfect sense; it was just not something that he expected Dawn to think of. That was when everything clicked in his mind. What had been different about Dawn; what had been bothering her. He dutifully looked around each girl's room, then went down to the kitchen where Dawn was cooking something.

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing that he could think of to say.

"Good. Not that I don't love you to pieces, but I'm a grown up. You guys were suffocating me. Treating me like a child while using my skills to your advantage. I want a real, adult, life of my own. Including boyfriends, friends, kids, and anything else some of you tend to take for granted. I know I'm young, but we have all been through a lot, and I'm the only one who hasn't been allowed to grow from it. Just because I'm not a slayer doesn't mean I can't take care of myself."

He watched her work as she spoke. She had a grace and a confidence in her movement that he had never noticed before. She was right. They had all gotten so caught up with protecting her that they had missed her ability to protect herself.

"All right, well, time to be off I think."

She smiled and nodded to the table where she had laid his luggage and her herbs. He hugged her and looked into her eyes. "Just because you live your own life, don't think that you can not call. Your sister has been very upset with you. Call her, explain, and then tell her to call me and I'll explain. I promise we will back off. No death threats to your boyfriends, no background checks on your friends."

She smiled brightly at him. "That's all I ask."

Moments later Giles was gone, and Dawn was on Cloud 9.


	10. What Will Be

**What Will Be**

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

AN: I think I'm going to use this story as the background for a series. I find that I really like the characters and the little world I'm building. Anyway on to the story.

Chapter 10: What Will Be

Things went well for months. Jonas and the girls got on well, Jon and Cassie became friends with Dawn, both girls were doing well in school, and the slaying was steady but quiet. On Jonas' end, Cassie rented out her house to an entire bachelor SG team, Jon got Jack to arrange it so he could skip the academy all together – since he'd already been – and join the SGC in security for a year so he could readjust to the military before joining one of the SG teams. He grumbled, but he got the rank of Lieutenant and worked with people who knew who he was and respected him, so the whining was curbed. He and Cassie shared the work of night manager of the inn, what little there really was, in exchange for rent and they all spent most of their free time with Dawn and the girls.They were all still keeping their secrets, but they were all happy. Then one day 7 months after Dawn first walked into the inn, two things happened that caused all hell to break loose.

They were all watching a movie that night. Slayer's Rest was empty for the first night in the 6 months that it had been open and they had decided to use the big screen in the entertainment room to set up Princess Bride. Jon had protested a bit, but not much, so they made it a double feature and added Robin Hood: Men In Tights as a follow up. Picking movies had been a problem for them at first. Dawn refused to watch slasher movies and anything church related, Robyn and Jenny wouldn't watch supernatural movies, Jon was anti military and war, Cassie was severely anti mad scientist, and Jonas hated aliens. So they were mostly left with comedy, cops, and fantasy. The only universal favorites were Pirates of the Caribbean, South Park, and some odd little movie that no one could explain why they liked called Unhitched. So everyone was sitting around watching Wesley give his "To the pain" speech, while Dawn was standing in the bathroom freaking out over a pregnancy test.

She hadn't actually thought she could be pregnant. She had only bought the damn thing to rule it out because Cassie had mentioned in passing that her stomach virus had similar symptoms as another friend's morning sickness. It was kind of a joke. How the hell was she going to deal with this. Jonas loved her, no question, his reaction wasn't really an issue. He would be happy and maybe suggest moving in together, which was a bit of a problem, but hey, knowing your boyfriend won't freak when you accidentally get knocked up, not exactly a bad thing. The bad comes in when you have to tell your family that the guy you have been keeping very mum about is your baby daddy.

They all knew she was dating, and they all knew that she had had the same boyfriend since she moved here, they just didn't know who he was. Since she had talked with Giles and he had passed on the message to back the fuck off, Dawn had spent a lot of time talking with Buffy, Xander and Willow. They had agreed that she deserved to have a life and didn't pry. She kept the details short though, so as not to tempt them into any meddling. They didn't even know his name. She always called him J in her calls and emails. The minute they knew about this, they were going to see it as a good cause to look into him. This would make him a permanent fixture in her life after all.

As she was standing there, silently losing her shit, she vaguely heard the sound of the doorbell ringing. Then she heard the unmistakable sound of Jenny screaming."MOM!!!!!"

When she ran into the front entry, stick still in hand, she saw something she hoped to never see again. Spike was sitting on her front step, leaning against the door jam, ripped up and bleeding.

AN: Hope the jump forward doesn't piss anyone off. My reasoning is that too many story have a lot of things harppening right away in people's lives. Meet, fall in love, bad guy, almost die, all in a week or something. That is so not realistic. I'm going for real connections, standing relationships to fall back on when the shit hits. I hope that's ok with you. Adding that I don't own anything more than copies of the movies mentioned above. I recommend them, all of them, and must add that Unhitched is a British film featuring Stuart Townsend and Seth Green. Seth Green with an English accent is bizarre and hysterical.


	11. Guess What

**Guess What**

Disclaimer: Still don't own.

AN: Thanks for the love. This is much longer than the last.

Chapter 11: Guess What

The room was silent for a moment as the group tried to digest the sight before them. Dawn was the first to act. She ran out onto the steps and started to pull Spike to his feet. Jon jumped in and pulled Spike's arm over his shoulder to drag him inside, but there was some kind of force keeping them from entering. Everyone was puzzled until Dawn started babbling.

"I'm sorry, I forgot. You haven't been here before. Spike come inside." The force disappeared, but she kept talking. "What happened? Who did this? Did you get in a fight with Angel again? I know you guys haven't been getting along since that thing with Buffy when you showed up at our house. Does Vi know where you are? I know about that too. What is it with you? Are you collecting your own little powerpuff girls or something? First Buffy, then that one girl Melissa, and now Vi. That is so wrong. Not as wrong as your original idea for a trifecta, but still gross.

As she spoke she was hustling Spike, and by extension Jon, through the house and down the stairs into the basement with the rest following behind. She never noticed that she dropped her pregnancy test in the kitchen, or that Cassie picked it up.

In the basement she moved Spike to the bed in the bedroom and ran to the closet. She muttered a few words at the wall in the back and then, when nothing happened, she yelled "Damn, it" in frustration and ran back up the stairs. She returned a moment later with a sheet of paper containing a list of actions followed by a phrase in another language. She looked at her list and said a different phrase and then a split second later, where there had just been wall, there was a metal door in front of her. She opened the door to what appeared to be a refrigerator and tossed a bag of blood at Robyn.

"Microwave, turntable on, 2½ minutes. Put it in the big black mug that nobody uses and add marshmallows. Oh and sprinkle it with cocoa powder."

Dawn sat on the bed and opened her mouth to continue her babble from earlier but Spike put a hand over her mouth to quiet her.

"Niblet, please don't. Besides, from the look on their faces," he gestured to the gob smacked looks on Jon, Jonas and Cassie's faces, "you need to do a bit of explainin' to your bloke and the kiddies."

Dawn looked at him and he shrugged. "You smell like him."He then turned to Jenny, who was sitting on his other side looking worried, and patted her cheek. "No worries pet. No harm done. Well, some, but that stupid bint will get hers."

Jenny smiled weakly and gave Spike a hug and Robyn was racing through the door and handed Spike the mug she was carrying. "Cheers Little Red." Spike smiled and started downing the warm blood. "Almost as good as when you make it Niblet."

"You're a vampire."Everyone turned and stared at Jon, who looked unnerved by their regard.

"Will 'I've seen some weird stuff' be enough of an explanation?"

Five people shook their heads and Spike snorted. "Not likely with this lot."

"Yeah, thought not. How bout we deal with your story first though. Seems odd you're visiting and all."

Spike smirked and nodded in agreement. "Kid has a point."

Dawn rolled her eyes and went to stand next to Jonas. "Ok, Spike. What the hell happened to you?"

"Well, bit, I was making my way from Cleveland to this place in Mexico where there have been some fairly strange deaths. Didn't use the TWERP thing cause it wasn't a big bad that I knew of, and I was solo cause Vi and the girls are dealing with a hellmouth thing at the moment. I wasn't able to help them cause it's a mostly outdoor daylight thing. Something about high noon on a hill or some such. Anyway, I was on the road and some bloody moron cuts me off and drives me off the road. I get pissed in a local demon bar waiting for the damage to be fixed and overhear some chat about a big bad recruiting for some attack on that mountain up there. I was tailing a couple of big puss covered wankers most of the way here. Was hopin they would lead me to some more information I could pass on to my Flower. So we get to just outside of town and they meet up with some ugly witch bitch who spots me and uses some kind of energy spell or something to kick my ass. Called home and got reamed for not callin for back up and then my girl told me bout this place and how to get here. Didn't mention it was you runnin the place though."

"You didn't tell Vi you were hurt either did you?"

"Mentioned a scuffle."

"Right. I'm calling Cleveland. Did they finish their apocalypse yet?"

"Yeah, but showdown yesterday. Heard it was a bit o' fun."

"Right. Be right back." She was almost out of the room when she noticed Cassie, standing with her back to the rest of the group looking at her intently, waving the pregnancy test discretely in front of her. "Um, Cassie, can you come up with me for a sec?"

"Sure." Cassie said brightly and they hurried up the stairs. Up in the kitchen Cassie sat at the counter and waited quietly while Dawn made her call.

"Hey Vi, we have a problem here."

/Yeah, Spike said there was a thing./

"Yup. How many people can you have ready to move in 2 hours?"

/How much room you got?/

"14 empty rooms, a guest room in the house, and you can share with Spike in the basement."

/Ok, I'll have 12 minis, 4 watchers, 2 witches and me ready to go./

"That doesn't add up you know."

/Yeah, but there are some couples and a couple of girls who don't mind doubling up on the list./

"Ok, see you then."

She hung up and turned to Cassie. "In a short time you guys are going to know way more about me and my family than any of you ever wanted to know. That, " she pointed to the stick on the counter, "is a really big deal to me. Now is just not the time to talk about it. Can you please keep it to yourself until I'm ready?"

Cassie smiled and walked over to give Dawn a comforting hug. "Of course. Just wanted to be all best friendy and let you know I'm here for you. You are my closest girl friend, and I think that whole exchange of information thing is going to put me pretty out there too. No worries."

Dawn smiled and hugged her back and they went back downstairs. When they pushed their way back in Dawn looked at the group crowded in there and noticed Jenny getting anxious with all that was going on. She smiled at her and announced that they were all going back to the house to talk more comfortably.

"Jenny, go grab Spike's stuff from his car and put it in the guest room."

Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you tell Vi that they were staying in the basement?"

"Not really enough room down here for both of them to be comfortable for more than one night, and I think this might take a while. Besides, Spike needs to get to know his new niece better."

"They let you keep her then?" Spike asked as he slowly made his way to the stairs with Jon still helping him move, if just a bit less than before.

"Yep, adoption went through last week."

"No party? Thought scoobies had a party for everything."

"Well, a party would have been nice, but I'm kinda keeping my distance right now. We went to O'Malley's though, great steak."

By the time the main group got to the family room Jenny was waiting for them with some snacks and drinks.

"I figured we might as well get cozy, this is gonna take a while." She said with a grin.

Dawn was the one to do the slayer speech, the same one she had given to Robyn and her family. After she finished the general information she got to the specifics.

"My older sister was called at 15. She's the one who died and came back, creating the double slayers. A couple of years later there was a military group who thought it would be cool to use vampires and demons as lab rats. Spike was taken and implanted with a microchip that caused him extreme pain every time he tried to hurt a human. He couldn't eat, and was unable to care for himself. He started selling information to us on demons and other vampires for blood. They even kept him tied up in the bathtub for a while because Buffy thought he was to pathetic to kill. He couldn't fight back. After a while he earned an amount of trust and began helping with the slaying since he could hurt demons. Other stuff happened and he ended up spending a lot of time babysitting me and we got close. Buffy died for real when I was barely 14. I ended up living with her friends for a while, until they brought her back for the dead with a spell. That was really traumatic for her and she was screwed up for a while. Spike had been in love with her for a while and they connected for a time. She broke it off, he freaked, they fought and he left. He came back months later with a soul, but the guilt of who he had been and the big bad, the First I explained before, drove him nuts. Stuff happened with chains and singing and his chip having to be removed due to malfunctions and he got better. He went up in ashes to save the world and then got trapped in an amulet that caused him to be ghosty for a while until he came back all the way. For whatever reason he and Buffy's other ex Angel, also a vampire with a soul, but really different circumstances that don't matter right now, kept it a secret for a year. Buffy got pissed when she found out and hasn't spoken to him since. He's been in Cleveland helping the slayers there and completing his trifecta of slayers nailed. Did I miss anything?"

"Hey, I resent that. Not my fault slayers find me irresistible. Melissa was a one night drunken thing anyway. And I've been with Vi for 3 years. Not like I've got a harem up there."

"Anyway, the only other thing is me." And she told them about the key.

After a few minutes Jonas hugged her close and said, "I love you. I don't care how you got here." And she smiled happily.

"So, Jenny and Robyn are both slayers and I'm their watcher. Robyn's family knows what and where she is. She's not abandoned or anything, it's just a cover story for why she doesn't live at home anymore. Jenny was in a group home in Canada and we took her in. That part is all true. There is this whole thing with me opening magical portals that you are going to see in about an hour, but that's about it."

Dawn took a cleansing breath and turned her attention to Jon. "Now it's your turn."

Jon sighed. "I don't know what to say exactly. Most of it is covered by a non disclosure agreement I signed and it involves Jonas and Cassie too. I don't want to tell things they don't want told."

Jonas shrugged. "It's no weirder than what they just told us, so I don't mind"

Cassie nodded. "Yeah, and if it makes you feel better, I'll tell it. As Jonas reminded me when I first moved to the inn, I never actually signed anything. Frankly, I think that the big wigs in charge forgot I existed after mom died." Jon gestured for her to continue and she told the story of Stargate Command and the people who worked there.

"Wow." Dawn said. "Not what I was expecting at all. And that still doesn't explain how you know about vampires."

Jon smiled. "Well no, but I figured me saying that I ran into a nest of vampires on a black ops mission in the early 80's wouldn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense without the background information."

Robyn laughed. "Good point. You really are WAY too old for me."

"Yep."

They all laughed and the tension was broken.

For the next 15 minutes they asked Spike questions about his attacker and the plans of the demons he was following. The more detail about the 'ugly witch bitch' they got the more it sounded like a goa'ould. The golden glowing eyes and oddly timbered voice could have been something else, but the idea to raid Cheyenne Mountain and Spike's description of what sounded like a modified hand device, made them pretty sure.

"Why would a snake use demons to attack the SGC?" Cassie asked.

"Well, we certainly wouldn't see it coming." Jon replied.

"Well, now that we know about it we need to stop them before they get that far." Dawn added decisively. "No offense Jon, but the military and the demon world do not need to be tangled up together ever again. We stop the attack and take out the snakey bitch before they even get close and the Air Force never has to know how close they got to getting their asses handed to them." Everyone nodded.

Dawn looked at her watch. "Time to pick up the troops. You guys wanna see?"

On the way to the parlor of the mansion Dawn burst into hysterics. "My best friend and my boyfriend are aliens."

Jonas started to chuckle. "My girlfriend's big brother figure is a vampire, her sister is a demon hunter and she can come back from the dead to kick my ass"

The whole group burst into laughter. Dawn couldn't even stop to do her spell. It took 3 tries before she could get the words out properly. When the slayer group arrived they found 7 people sprawled on the couches laughing their asses off at the strange way their lives were going.


	12. Safe Harbor

Disclaimer: Moo

AN: Here is a short interlude. All you sweet reviewers are going to make me cry. You'd think I was paying you to write nice things about me.

Chapter 12: Safe Harbor

The story the slayers got about the Stargate and the false gods they fought was even shorter than what Cassie had shared. They left out the parts about Jonas and Cassie being aliens and Jon a clone. It wasn't important to the mission, and it was hard enough to trust to friends, much less strangers. They were already uncomfortable with Spike knowing, no need to add to it. They agreed that they would tell Vi though. "Might as well, no way Spike is keeping it to himself." Was Dawn's comment on the subject.

There were many details that had been left out of the rushed explications. Why Jonas and Cassie lived on earth and how exactly Jon had been cloned. Who the scoobies were and how they were all connected. The six friends agreed that now wasn't really the time to hash it all out, but they would when it was all over.

The slayers and their support team settled in for the night after all the explanations and a mass patrol. They swept the entire city and killed a good chunk of the fringe group surrounding the main target. They also nabbed a drunk demon who had been wandering the woods singing not too far from the mountain's outer perimeter. He was called Julien and couldn't wait to help them. It seemed that 'ugly witch bitch' – a nickname that seemed to have caught on – was calling herself Persephone, and gathering the faithful to travel through the 'great portal of the gods' to a 'land of darkness and plenty where no creature of the dark shall be hunted and the warriors of the light hold no sway'. This in itself was rather appealing to Julien's nature, but the rub was that they had to break into a military base to get there. He had strongly objected to the idea of getting anywhere near any military anything, ever. The story of the Initiative's experiments and torture had spread far in the demon world, and he just wasn't biting. Of course nobody ever mentioned the military angle until you got to town. "I guess they figure once you're here it won't as hard to convince you to do it." He said bitterly.

The attack wasn't planned for another week. Not all of her followers had arrived yet, and they wanted to try and get more intel on where exactly in the massive base the gate was located. This gave the good guys time to get intel on her as well. Julien didn't know where Persephone herself was staying, but he did know where the minions were. It seemed that she didn't like to spend a whole lot of time with the creatures who did her dirty work for her.

It was nearly dawn when everyone finally went to bed; Jonas with Dawn, Cassie in Robyn's room, the girls in Jenny's room and Jon disappearing into Slayer's Rest with what Spike described as "that busty blonde Amazon bird".

Jonas laid in bed holding Dawn and thinking for a long time. "What's wrong?" she asked him after a while."

Just wondering if me being an alien bothers you at all."

"Hello, key here. At least you have a whole life of real memories. And you're not really an alien. You are a human from another planet. Not the same thing." There was a long silence. "Are you mad at me for not telling you that I'm not a real person?"

He hugged her closer. "You are a real person. So all your memories for the first 13 or so years of your life aren't real. Jon's memories up till a few years ago aren't really his. You're both real. Just different. It doesn't make any of our experiences false. It just adds layers, that's all."

She smiled and kissed him hard. She had never felt so sure of herself in her entire life.

Spike and Vi were having a more sullen conversation down the hall."I'm sorry I didn't tell you how badly I was hurt luv. I didn't want you to panic."

"I'm not Princess Buffy you know. I'm not going to flip out on you."

"I know that. I just – look, if I had said that I had the shit kicked out of me, what would you have done?"

"Called Dawn and gotten a portal to you and dragged you back here to get you fixed up."

"And had all the girls freaking out because you were going all nutjob worrying."

She sighed. "Probably."

"Right, so I come here on my own, without a nutjob slayer and her cranky minion slayers all over me, get the help I need and then call you to get everyone here in a nice orderly fashion. What's wrong with that?"

She rolled her eyes and crawled up on the bed next to him. "Fine, whatever, just don't do it again. You'll be lucky if I let you go off on your own ever again. Next time I'm calling Angel."

He snorted and pulled her close. "Good luck getting him to give up his stalking of Princess and the Whelp to protect me."

"True" she giggled.

"Feel better now luv?"

"Ask me again after I beat the bitch's ass."

Down the hall Jenny and Robyn were sleeping fitfully; uncomfortably aware of the couples making love around them.

"Fucking slayer hearing."


	13. Turning the Tide

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of it, though I would kill to have Ben Browder in that nice leather number for season 10 of SG1, even for just a few minutes

**AN:** I have reservations about this chapter. I'm not much into the battle stuff so I kind of grazed that area and …. Well you'll see. My muse is really running wild tonight. I'm just running with it right now.

** Chapter 13: Turning the Tide**

Vi's tribe stayed 5 days. On the night of the 4th day was the battle, if you could call it that. After the snake gave another speech to her devoted worshipers she was followed home to the posh hotel suite she was renting. She was grabbed in her sleep by a squad of 6 slayers led by Vi herself. All the advance tech in the world and her security was pathetic.

Once the leader was secured the rest was as simple as getting another full meeting together with her as bait in the demon trap. Stripped of all weapons with a witch controlling her actions, Persephone called together her entire force to celebrate their upcoming battle. Once the group was gathered inside the warehouse Persephone and her puppet master were portaled out, and the full slayer team was portaled in. The demons were startled to say the least.

Dawn never used her portals directly to or from a fight. They were worried that an enemy would slip away, trace it, and target Dawn. In this instance however, the exits had been barred from the outside and guarded by the others of the fighting force. There was no way out.

That still left the goddess herself to deal with. The plan had been to kill her outright, but Jon wanted to assess her value to the SGC before making any determination. There wasn't any. She had been stuck on earth since long before Ra's exile and knew nothing of value.

Jon had given the go ahead to get rid of her, but he asked that they try to free the host if they could. Vi agreed that the host was blameless and arranged for a healer witch to be called to try to save her. Persephone was placed in the basement bedroom and it was locked and warded to keep her in place.

Everything seemed resolved, but Dawn was uneasy. Something was nagging at her. It was just too easy. Not right. After all of the guests and family had gone off to get some rest Dawn went to the house.

In the kitchen there was a blank wall just like the one that hid the blood fridge in the basement. In that wall was a safe, and in the safe was a gun.

The slayers didn't use guns for the reason that they weren't terribly effective on their usual targets. The scoobies had their own reasons for not liking guns, but Dawn had one anyway. She took the idea of using every weapon available to heart, and she wasn't going to let her bad experience with this one taint her ability to protect those around her. Nothing says anti home invasion like a big ass gun. It's a lot harder to explain why the guy who broke into your house has axe wounds than a bullet in his leg.

Dawn's unease was making her mind work in circles. Getting the gun from the safe wasn't even a conscious choice. When asked later why she didn't grab a sword or a crossbow she wouldn't be able to answer. She just had to have it with her to feel safe.With her gun stuck into her jeans at the small of her back, under her loose t shirt, she walked back to the big house and began cleaning up. Lara was due in soon, and she was bringing a couple of her kids to help her, but Dawn needed something to do, so she was doing dishes.

There was not a sound other than the slight swish of water and rumbling of dishes grazing each other in the sink. She would never know what tipped her off that something was wrong. Maybe it was the quiet, or maybe she was just paranoid, but that same queasy, restless, wrong feeling that had prompted her to bring a loaded gun into a house full of teenage girls washed over her again, much stronger. Silently she prepared herself to move.

Deep breath, fingers twitching on the sponge in her hand, loud, not too loud, yawn, stretch and rub shoulder, move hand around to back, grabgunturnshoot. BANG!!!!!

The moment the shot rang out Dawn fell to the floor sobbing. Her heart was racing, her hand was clutching the gun, finger still on the trigger. She had barely seen Persephone's face before it was gone. She had been so close that Dawn had nearly hit her with the gun when she turned.

There was this tumultuous mix of emotions running through her head. A clear relief that she had somehow known to protect herself and her still barely real baby. A fear of what might have happened if she had ignored her instinct. A calm assurance that she had done the right thing. A horror at what could have been if she had been wrong. Who could be there, dead, on the floor.

Dawn sat there, back against the cabinets, staring at the bloody body sprawled on the floor just a few feet in front of her, a pool of blood sprawling out around it. Blood sprayed on her in a way that was eerily similar to how Willow had looked the day that Tara died. She was shell shocked, unblinking and unmoving except for the racking of her body at the sobs.

That's what they saw when Buffy and Xander ran into the kitchen moments later.

**AN:** this is a bit short, but I thought we could use a minute to compose ourselves here. I almost cried writing that last part. Not sure if it's because I'm tired, or an emotional wimp or whatever.


	14. Wonderland and Oz

**Disclaimer:** I just found a Dumdum left over from Halloween, so go me.

**AN:** Moment of silence for Ugly Witch Bitch. ----------- Ok, back to the story.

* * *

**Chapter 14: Wonderland and Oz Are Actually Only Continents on the Planet of Fucked Up and Weird**

Coincidences are strange but true.

Buffy and Xander hadn't heard about the ruckus in Colorado. They had been sitting at home watching a couple of slayers under their care having a huge bitch fight and decided that they needed a vacation, badly. Ever since they had left Africa and moved to Melbourne to care for a group of slayers there, everything had been a battle. Not in the big bad way, but in the mundane boring way. All of the girls hated each other, none of them respected the authority of the couple, and 3 of them had tried to pick a fight with Buffy, claiming that she wasn't all that great anyway. One thing after another for 4 months until they decided that they were going to regroup for a week at the Rest, visit with Dawn and the girls, then come back and kick these brats' little asses.

They hadn't called ahead, wanting to surprise Dawn, so the fact that there didn't seem to be anybody around wasn't a shock. There were 3 cars in the drive instead of 1 so they knew there were people here somewhere. Xander had just dragged the bags out of the trunk and closed it when they heard the shot. That horrible sound was one that they would be able to spot for the rest of their lives after the day that Warren had shot Buffy and killed Tara with a stray bullet, and it was coming from inside a house that was meant to be a safe haven for everyone they knew.

They ran full tilt in through the front hall and through the house toward the sound of sobbing emanating from the kitchen. Buffy covered her mouth with her hand and screamed. She would have fallen to the floor herself if Xander hadn't been standing behind her and grabbed her. He turned her around and shook her. "Dawn's not hurt. Calm down. Dawn's not hurt."

He hugged her quick and hard before slowly making his way to Dawn's side. He was just moving her finger off the trigger when the room filled with people. There were a large group they recognized from the Cleveland house coming from upstairs and down a side hall. Most of them were half dressed at best and had obviously been sleeping when whatever happened……happened. From the back door came Jenny and Robyn, dressed for school, Spike under a large quilt, Vi, who had a set of car keys clutched in her hand and 3 people they had never seen before. The youngest of the 3 strangers looked at Dawn and Xander with the oddest expression before he grabbed the gun, emptied the bullets into the trashcan, and dropped the gun in the sink of dirty dished and soapy water. The girl ran out the back door and puked. The older of the strangers, however, went and sat at Dawn's other side and pulled her close. She moved into his embrace and held on to him for dear life. The rest of the group could do nothing but stare. Everyone was lost for words for what seemed like eternity until Xander finally broke the silence."What the FUCK happened here?"

This got everyone in motion. The puking girl came back in and asked the young guy, who was apparently Jon, to look at the body and "make sure", whatever that meant. Vi turned to the kids and told them to go get the number to their school and a phone for her. The guy, Jon stared into the mess that was the dead woman's head and nodded at the girl, who sighed in relief. There was a mass exit for Vi's people, some running back to their rooms to get fully dressed and a few running down to the basement for some reason. The only people who didn't move were Dawn, the men at her sides, Spike, and Buffy.

After a moment Spike moved to stand between Dawn and the body, blocking it from her sight. "Jonas, take her into the dining room. Luv, can you go grab some stuff from the house to get her cleaned up and changed?"

Vi nodded and went out the back door, running into Jenny and Robyn coming back and herding hem along with her. He turned to the girl. "Cassie, can you take Jon in there and close the drapes so I don't go all crispy?" She nodded and they hurried out. He helped get Dawn up and he and Jonas moved her into the dining room, Xander grabbing Buffy's hand and following mutely behind.

When they entered the dining room Spike was speaking to the other 3 in hushed tones, but Xander picked up the words "bury', "woods", and "body". They all nodded and Jon excused himself from the room. By this point Dawn had calmed down a lot. She was no longer crying and she was responding to a few quiet questions that the man, Jonas, was asking her. Sometimes Xander really wished he had slayer hearing. He looked at Buffy questioningly and she smiled slightly at the unvoiced request to know what they were saying.

She leaned in and whispered to him so as not to disturb the conversation. "The kid is going to get rid of the body. There was some kind of leech demon or something on her and he made sure it didn't get away or anything. Now Jonas is trying to find out what happened. She's not really sure. Said she just had a bad feeling. There was some kind of fight, and it was too neat for her."

The conversation and translation stopped when Vi came in. She and Cassie took Dawn to one of the bathrooms to get her cleaned up.

Dawn was silent the entire time she was in the bathroom. She didn't seem to be catatonic, just distracted. When they got back into the dining room Spike was just finishing explaining about the demon cult and their parasite leader. Vi figured that he had left out the part about Dawn's boyfriend being an alien, considering how calm Buffy seemed to be.

Buffy ran over and pulled Dawn into a tight hug, which seemed to pull her out of her daze.

"Buffy, I'm fine."

"What happened?" Buffy was looking into her sister's eyes and noticed the mix of disbelief and relief that was still racing through her.

Dawn sat back down and grabbed Jonas' hand. "I was uneasy, the whole thing was tidy and ….. simple. That just doesn't happen to us. Everyone else was so worn out that they just crashed out, but I just had this weird nervous energy. I don't know if it was that or…" She trailed off, looked at Cassie, and then shook her head to clear her thoughts. "So I cleaned up the stuff that was laying all over the house." She laughed. "I even vacuumed around Jon where he was passed out on the floor. I tried to go upstairs and rest, but I just couldn't and my tossing and turning was disturbing Jonas, so I went downstairs and piddled around a bit. But this feeling…it was just….there, growing in the back of my mind. I got the gun from the safe in my kitchen and put it at my back and that made me feel a bit better, so I came over here to clean up a bit to keep busy. I….I was washing the dishes when that nagging just started screaming in my brain. It wasn't a hunch, it was a KNOWING that bad was coming at us. I didn't hear a sound. I don't know how she got out. It wasn't even a string of thought. Just one split second to the next. And then there I was on the floor with Xander and Jonas."

Cassie came over to her and looked into her eyes intently. "You did good."

Dawn reached out to the girl and hugged her close speaking softly. "She would have killed us. I'm not even used to it yet and she….."

"I know. It's ok."

Buffy was still so shocked by the whole thing that she didn't register her sister turning to someone else for comfort enough to be hurt by it. When a few of the people that had run into the basement came in the room she turned on them and asked, "How did she get out?"

A blonde witch whose name she couldn't remember answered her. "The wall. We warded the door to the room so she couldn't open or break it down, so she started beating on the walls."

"That makes sense." Dawn was now standing next to Buffy with an arm around her. "The basement is soundproofed because the gym is down there, but the bedroom….. That was a last minute thing, they just slapped up interior walls to box off a corner. They're not even insulated or anything. Jon said that the symbiote thing makes them stronger than normal, and the basement door wasn't locked or anything. I wasn't in the kitchen all that long. She could have been at the top of the steps waiting for all I know. She could have been planning to jump into my body, or take me hostage, or just kill me." Dawn trembled slightly. "Good thing I ignored all those 'Guns are bad' speeches, huh?"


	15. Take A Deep Breath

**Disclaimer:** Poor white trash in a trailer

**AN:** You may think that Dawn is taking all this way too well, but considering her background, it's not all that weird. Some might think that I'm Angel bashing here, but I'm just…. I'll explain at the end of the chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 15: Take a Deep Breath  **

The rest of that day was hectic. Xander patched and repaired the wall in the basement. Vi called the girls in sick to school and spoke with Robyn's mother about what had happened and they decided that she would be sent home for a long weekend while Dawn was dealing with the trauma she had just endured. Cassie took Jenny to her place for the day so they wouldn't be underfoot. Dawn sent the Cleveland group, minus Spike and Vi, home. Buffy was hovering, but took the time to call Willow and Giles to fill them in. Willow teleported in not an hour later with Giles and Andrew in tow. Her first order of business was an anti violence ward. Andrew went to the house and made lunch for everyone, and Giles had Jonas fill him in on the history involved with the aliens. He was particularly interested in the early Egyptian confrontation.

Lara showed up not long after Willow and the others. She took the situation in stride; she had expected something like it to happen eventually. She, and her two eldest daughters, set about clearing up after the old guests and arranging the new ones. Buffy and Xander were put in Dawn's guest room and Vi and Spike were relocated to the main house. They made up the basement room as well, expecting that where Buffy went, Angel was soon to follow. Some people were skeptical that he would actually show, but sure enough, just after sunset, there he was at the kitchen door.

Spike, of course, cleaned up in the betting pool.

Vi smirked as he collected his winnings. "I learned a long time ago that you don't bet against someone 5 times your age or more."

Angel insisted that he had come from Washington because of the demon army. The fact that he had a receipt in his pocket from an Australian drug store didn't change his story. When he asked why he got stuck in the basement and Spike didn't Xander laughed,

Buffy snorted, and Spike quipped that he had a Slayer to protect him from the big bad sunshine. Of course Vi had to ruin his bravado by adding, "And Big Bad Blondie here gets all freaked out if he's underground for more than a couple hours anymore. Being chained up in a basement and totally bat shit crazy for months will do that to ya."

Spike grumbled about "bloody women", but didn't fuss overmuch, since the mood in the room had been lightened considerably.

It was 9 o'clock that night before everyone was sitting around the kitchen and breakfast nook of Dawn's house chatting and annoying Andrew as he made a late dinner.

Cassie and Jenny had shown up not an hour earlier with the groceries he had asked for and it was a packed house with them all hanging around together. It took 20 minutes for Dawn to grab Jonas and slip upstairs without being followed by concerned family and friends. When they got up to her room she locked the door and sat on the bed next to him, trying to choose her words.

"There is something that I've been waiting to tell you. I didn't want to distract you from the whole battle thing, and then we haven't had a moment alone all day. I would wait until things calm down and everyone goes home, so we have time to deal, but after what happened this morning I REALLY need you to know, so that you'll understand why I'm so freaked about the whole thing."

"Killing an alien who is attacking you seems like plenty of reason to freak out to me."

"But, that's not really new for me. I've spent most of my life being chased, attacked, threatened, and sacrificed to open big portals. It was different this time." She grabbed both of his hands in hers and made sure she was looking right into his eyes. "This time it wasn't just me. Last week, like 5 minutes before Spike showed up, I found out that I'm pregnant."

Xander and Spike were having a heated debate about which one of them was more whipped, which their respective slayers were helping along by offering examples for them, when they heard a loud thump from upstairs. Angel, Buffy, and Willow were almost to the stairs when Cassie yelled for them to stop and listen. Instead of the sound of fighting or breaking glass that they were expecting they heard the sound of laughter and what Buffy thought was a cheer.

"Woohoo?" she asked with an odd disgusted look on her face. "Oh, they better NOT be having sex up there!"

"Nope, that's not what that sounds like."

All heads turned toward Jenny. "What, "she shrugged, "I live across the hall, and I have Slayer hearing." She turned to Vi who was trying not to choke on the water she was drinking. "Robyn was way more pissed at you and Spike than them. Said at least Dawn and Jonas remembered that we were in the house and tried to be a little discrete."

Vi's whole body turned red, but she was saved from answering to this by Buffy. "Ok, eww, but what the hell is going on up there then?"

Spike was surprisingly the one to answer. "I think Bit just shared her big secret with lover boy. Bout time."

This was greeted with a room full of "Huh?"s and one indignant "How do you know?" from Cassie.

"Well, you aren't exactly covert." He waved his hand in front of his body, displaying that he had seen her similar action when he first arrived. "Well, that and I found the evidence when I was helping Flower look for something else."

"What are you two talking about?" Buffy was getting frustrated with the non answers she was getting.

"You'll find out soon enough Slayer. Let baby sister tell you herself."

Buffy pouted, but sat back down and turned the talk back to the Stargate. "So, how is it that you 3," she nodded to where Cassie and Jon were teasing Jenny, "know about this gate thing?"

Jon was the one who answered after a silent moment. "Jonas used to work for a secret project that interacted with Stargate Command. That was a while ago though, he left the country for a few years and then came back to town about a year and a half ago to open the inn. Cassie's mom was the Chief Medical Officer there, but she died a few years ago. I work there now, in security, and my dad is General O'Neill, who retired as head of home world security a couple years back."

"Huh, didn't think they let people tell their families about top secret stuff like that." Buffy mused suspiciously.

"Well, no." Jon said with a sigh. "There was a kidnapping thing that happened when we were kids. Hard to hide aliens when they're standing right there."

"I can see that." Buffy seemed mollified and moved on to another subject.

After about 15 minutes Dawn and Jonas finally came into the kitchen, looking so happy they were practically floating.

"So," Dawn said in as casual a voice as she could manage. "Jonas and I have decided that since I'm pregnant, we should probably move in together."

Andrew, who was the only one besides Spike and Cassie who seemed un fazed by this odd announcement, remarked,, "Well, yeah, it's kinda hard to just date when there is a kid in the middle.", and went on getting the food ready to serve without even looking up.

The silence lasted a moment, until Buffy went to jump up and started ranting, not even slowing when Xander yanked her back down and kept her from approaching the couple.

"Excuse me? Dawn, you haven't even been dating a year. You so don't know each other well enough for that kind of commitment. And a baby? You're not even 25. I know you have Jenny, but she's a teenager. Babies are a whole other responsibility. You can't really –"

Xander's hand over her mouth was the thing that ended her speech. "Good for you Dawnie."

Buffy was still glaring at her boyfriend when Giles went to Dawn and gave her a hug and a kiss. "Congratulations my dear. Maybe I will be able to get this one to call me 'Grandpa Giles' instead of 'Old Man G'.

Jenny puffed up proudly and smiled. "Not a chance."

Dawn smiled brightly at them and walked over to Buffy and Xander. Buffy was calmer, but still unhappy. "I just wanna protect you."

"I know, but I'm a grown up now, have been for a while. I'm already a mom, and a watcher. It's time I have a grown up relationship too. At least I didn't work my way through the supernatural world to find the right guy was there all along like you did. I met the guy and skipped all the brooding and bleach to go straight for happy ending."

"I know. I have no room to talk when it comes to men." She sighed and hugged her sister. "I'm done. Psycho Slayer Mom is finished, at least until I have a kid of my own."

Xander paled and Spike burst out laughing. "Oh, relax Xander, jeez. I'm NOT the one who's pregnant."

"Something for which we are all profoundly grateful." Giles muttered.

"HEY!!!" Buffy yelled indignantly. Everyone else burst out laughing, except for Angel, who seemed mildly upset at the idea of Buffy having children with Xander, or anyone else.

After a nice big family dinner, Spike stood up and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Oi, listen up. A couple of months ago Flower told the Watcher that we were plannin on leavin the Hellmouth." He paused and Giles nodded while the Scoobies looked confused. "So, we were thinking of settin up here near the Bit, if that isn't a problem with her that is. We don't plan to interfere with your business pet. Lookin at a semi retirement type deal. Not bowin out, just gonna stop lookin for trouble."

Dawn was about to ask why when Vi spoke up. "It's not him that needs to back off, if's me. The past 8 years have been great, but I'm just not happy with the head slayer thing anymore. We've been talking about it for a while and I'm moving on with my life. Get a job, have a home like Dawn has done for herself, maybe even a family eventually."Angel scoffed and Vi turned on him. "Yes, Angel, I am aware that my boyfriend is not a member of the procreating population, thanks." She waved him off and continued. "Anyway, that's not the big thing. The big thing is that, if Dawn isn't freaked out by it, we want to make a place for us in Colorado Springs."

Dawn blinked for a moment and then said, "Of course. I'm not gonna say that it's going to be easy for you to adjust, but this really is the best place to do it." She jumped up and went to give Vi a hug. "I'll help you however I can, we all will."

That night was a beginning. The rifts that had sent Dawn running were healing. The family was growing. And everyone went to sleep that night with a great sense of peace. Except for Angel, who disappeared that night and wasn't heard from in Colorado again.

* * *

**AN:** Ok, this was kind of bitchy to Angel, but I couldn't help it. His bitchy, whiny resentment of Spike on the latter seasons of both shows really turned me off. I am going to do chapter with him later on that will bring him back to being cool. I was just going to send everyone off on their merry way, but I love Spike too much to give him up, and Vi is kind of a blank slate that I can work with. 


	16. Move Along

**Disclaimer. **I now officially own 1 fanfiction story. Yay me!

**AN:** Thanks to my reviewers who made this possible. This was originally the end of the story, but I've taken the two one shot stories I wrote as part of the series and the whole next story and added them to this one to make it a bit tidier since doesn't have the same kind of posting system as TtH does.

* * *

**Chapter 16: Move Along**

"So, exactly how long do I have to wait until I can call you dad?"

"I don't know, I hadn't actually thought about it. Why?"

"If I don't call you dad around the baby, he's gonna grow up calling you Jonas. That's just weird." Jenny leaned back on the counter she was sitting on and snatched a piece of the cucumber that Jonas was slicing. "That book that Willow sent Mom says that 'children pick up on behavioral cues as early as 3 weeks old.' That means I need to practice so I don't mess up in front of him and get him all confused."

Jonas just looked at her. "Ok…… but don't you think he'll notice that you have different last names?"

She shrugged. "Eventually, but not until he's a lot older than 3 weeks. And he'll probably notice that you and mom have different last names too. Better get on that."

He shook his head and laughed. "I'll make sure to tell your mom you said that."

* * *

"Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, OH MY GOD!!!!!"

"You know that's almost exactly what Vi said."

"I'll bet. How the hell did this happen?"

"Won it in a poker game."

"Yeah, see, that's not actually funny."

"I'm not kiddin' pet."

"What?"

Dawn was standing on the steps in front of the cottage that Vi and Spike were renting from Jonas, staring at Spike, who was lazily swinging on the old porch swing, grinning like an idiot. The amazing part of this sight was that it was broad daylight.

Vi had called her and demanded that she come over right now to see something. This was not what she had been expecting. She made her way to the swing and grabbed his hand as she heaved herself down next to him. She had just entered her eighth month of pregnancy and, guess what, not fun. She held on to his hand for a long time, getting used to the unfamiliar warmth and the tiny pressure of a pulse beating in his palm. "Poker game?"

"Yeah, don't think she thought it would work."

"She?" Dawn was only getting more confused with this whole situation.

"Vi, she was at an all night private poker game with a mixed group of humans and demons downtown. I think your cleaner, Lara, and her husband were there. Anyway it was down to just her and this other bint, who was flat and desperate. So this bird offers to put up one wish against the pot. Well, I taught my girl how to spot a bluff a mile off, so she goes for it, figuring that at least she'll get the rest of the cash. So the girl loses and asks Vi what her wish is. Vi knows the whole bit about wishes so she told her to get the big man himself to grant the wish of a slayer." Mirth danced n his eyes as he pictured what her expression must have been. "He was pretty pissed, but he gave her one wish, no nasty side effects, one time only. I think the idea of messing with one of hundreds of slayers was somewhat unappealing to him."

Vi came out the door then with a huge tray covered in sweets and snacks. "You better enjoy this special treatment now, cause it is so temporary." She tried to sound put out, but she was so happy that she just shined. "How far did you get?"

"Big bad just agreed to your terms."

"Oh, good, I get to tell the fun part." She settled in a chair nest to Spike and leaned forward, elbows on knees, to continue the tale. "My first reaction was to ask for something stupid, something that couldn't cause problems even if he did double cross me. Like Dragonball." Dawn shook her head, not getting it. "This pig got a wish and decided to ask for a comfortable pair of underwear." Dawn and Spike gave her odd looks. "Never mind. Anyway, I changed my mind and decided to go for something that he COULDN'T grant, maybe his head would explode or something. I had heard that the only way for a vampire to become human was that ShanShu thing, so I thought it would be undoable. So I make my wish I say 'I wish that the man I love, William Mathew Harding, known as William the Bloody and Spike, could become human.' The guy just shrugged and disappeared. I was disappointed, but hey, wasn't' expecting anything, so I came home. Spike was asleep, so I crawled into bed and cuddled up to get some shut eye. I put my head on his chest like always, and there was a heartbeat. I jumped up and screamed so loud I nearly cracked the windows."

"She scared the hell out of me." Spike smiled and patted her arm. "I jumped up and she started doing that 'oh my god' thing you were doing. She couldn't even explain what was going on. She just grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the house and shoved me off the porch."

* * *

Jon was screwed.

"Hey Daniel, how's it going." Maybe if he played it right Daniel wouldn't pay attention to the girl sitting across from him.

"Um, good. How are you?" Damn it, he had that confused, skeptical sound to his voice and he was staring at Robyn. Screwed.

"Alright I guess. Just waiting for some friends for dinner." He was so not going to buy that. Of course if Robyn wasn't smirking and about to laugh her ass off it might be easier.

"Uhuh, Jon can I talk to you, in private?" He smiled at Robyn and looked apologetic. "It's a work thing, classified."

"No problem, go right ahead." She leaned over the table and stroked Jon's face. "Just hurry back Jonny."

Jon was tempted to smack her, but he didn't think that would help his case. He just rolled his eyes at her and muttered "Fer cryin' out loud" under his breath as he followed the seemingly older man out of the bar and into the parking lot.

"Jon."

"Danny, it's not what you think"

"You were in a bar"

"So were you!"

"But I'm not with an underage girl!"

"Well neither am I! Not like that anyway. She just –"

Just then a small pair of arms slunk around him and he turned. "Hey, hot stuff."

Daniel looked horrified. "Cassie?"

She ignored him and went on. "Sorry we're late. Have you been waiting long."Another warm body appeared at his other side.

"You weren't lonely with just one of us were you?" This was Vi. Then came a kiss on each cheek.

"Junior has missed his daddy." Dawn placed one of his hands on her belly.

Jenny kept silent, but she was hanging all over him. Finally Robyn was there, and she kissed him full on the lips. "Nice to meet you Daniel, but we don't wanna be late." With that they dragged him off and left Daniel standing there with a look of profound shock on his face.

* * *

"I hate all of you."

"Oh, come on, the look on your face was so worth it. Hell the look on _his_ face was worth it."

"Cassie, that is not the point. He's going to call Jack."

"Yeah, and Jack will laugh his ass off."

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

"How am I ever going to show my face at work again?"

"He'll already be off world when you go back in, and then you'll be off world when he gets back. By the time you see him again he'll have worked out that it's a joke. Of course, when we all show up to pick you up from the mountain together….."

He dropped his head onto the table. Screwed.

* * *

**AN:** And thus or story would have ended with a tale of immorality and debauchery. Hah. The Spike human thing is in service to the next full story that I'm planning. This is as close to a happily ever after ending as I could bring myself to doing. Aren't you glad I'm being nice to you guys though? Hope you enjoy. Oh, and I don't own Dragonball either. I can't tell you how pleased I am that I worked a bit more of my geeksomness into this fic. 


	17. A Very Scooby Baby Shower

A Very Scooby Baby Shower

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or Stargate.

AN: Site Wide Challenge response in the Contact universe. Short and sweet. Super fluffy and hopefully kinda funny too.

Dawn Summers was 8 ½ month pregnant. That was the reason they were al here, in the large parlor of the Rest, having a very odd baby shower.

It was odd for a lot of reasons. One was that there were a lot of guys there. Another was that Dawn refused to have anything to do with party games of any kind. The most odd thing, however, was the large number of weapons among the gifts.

After a nice brunch, served by the half demon housekeeper even though she was supposed to be a guest, the group settled down for the opening of the gifts.

Jonas was seated on the floor next to Dawn's feet and the rest of the group was scattered on the couches chairs and ottomans that had been placed facing the squishy armchair she was in. The pile of gifts was just to Jonas' left and he had the duty of passing them to her and helping with the few that were too large for her to handle alone.

The first gift was from Jon, so no one was surprised that it was a set of hockey jerseys in staggered sizes. "Don't want him to grow out of them too fast."

Dawn smiled slightly and thanked him. "Just don't expect him to play. I can't see any kid of mine being graceful enough for any kind of ice skating."

The next gift was from Buffy and Xander. "Awww. Thanks guys. I totally needed new luggage."

"Very funny. It's a full set of diaper bags. 10 colors and shades, to match any outfit." Buffy looked proud of herself for finding fashion in such an odd place. Xander just looked at her like she was crazy and added, "They are all fully stocked with bottles and pacifiers and blankets, extra baby tees, burping cloths and anything else you might put in there for at least a year. That's why the box is so big."

Dawn beamed at them and moved on to the next gift, from Faith. "Thanks Faith, but it's a baby, not a puppy. A leash is just a little much."

Faith shrugged and smirked at her. "You'll see."

Ok, moving on. Vi and Spike gave her a set of little blunt daggers. That seemed odd but sweet, but there were many more freaksome things to come. The slayers from Xander and Buffy's house in Melbourne sent a child sized crossbow, with a full set of stakes and arrows. From Cleveland came a baby sized ninja outfit and a lifetime membership to the local dojo. Cassie even gave her a little wooden Katana and a short practice dummy.

Dawn just stared at her. "What, you're a watcher. He's gonna see some shit. Gotta be prepared."

After the weaponry came magic. Willow sent a small bag containing 6 protection amulets. Buffy was impressed and a little put out that her best friend had outdone her in the strange fashion accessorizing. "She just had to show off."

Andrew sent a spelled stuffed dog that moved and made noise like a real dog if you said the incantation, and then turned off at another one. And Giles brought her a baby carrier that had a weightless spell built in.

Jenny and Robyn had pitched in and bought a jogging stroller. Lara and her husband got her a baby gate that put up a magical wall and was magically tuned to age, so no one under 12 could open it.

The gift that brought tears to her eyes however was from Drea, Robyn's mom. It was a hand stitched quilt covered in runes that guaranteed peaceful dreams and deep slumber. "How did she do this?"

"She called HQ and talked a couple of the witches there into helping her with it. They even did some of the sewing. It was like an old fashioned quilting bee the last few times I was home. I think she was worried that it wouldn't be done before he was born."

"If she was here I would give her such a big hug." By now Dawn was full on crying and Jonas moved to hug her.

It was one of the many first that the Scooby gang and their larger circle of friends and family would experience in the years to come, and it was the one that started them all.


	18. Angels and Aliens

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of the Buffy, Angel, or Roswell series'

**AN:** FFA pairing for TtH, taking place in the Contact with the Great Unknown Universe.

* * *

**Chapter 18: Angels and Aliens **

Angel made his way quickly into the alley. There in the darkness was the couple he had followed from the bar. They were still arguing, and the girl still had magic crackling around her, uncontrolled. He went to grab her, but the guy saw him and used his own magic to knock him into a wall.

"Maria, go. Get the others and meet me back here. Hurry." She nodded and ran out into the street.

Angel righted himself and stared at the young man. "She's dangerous. You can't just let her wander around in that state. That kind of magical power. She could get a lot of people killed if she doesn't learn control."

Michael Guerin looked back at him. He was so not in the mood for this. "Thanks Obi Wan, I got that. Why do you think we were out here instead of staying in the restaurant?" It was bad enough that Maria had picked up magical power of all things, but no he was getting advice about it from strangers. "It's new ok. Last week we were in Cleveland and a group of whack jobs snatched her from a grocery store. By the time we got her back they had infused her with all this magic crap so they could use her as a sacrifice to some god or something." If the guy knew about magic then there was no point being all top secret about it. Not like he was telling him about himself and his family. And besides, maybe he could help.

"Well, can't you help her, you obviously have power of your own."

Michael winced. Guess he noticed where that blast had come from. "I've had my power my whole life, didn't need to learn to control it."

"Well, then I suggest you get clear of her. You guys looked too comfortable arguing for it to be a rare thing, and that is not good for her. She might kill you."

Michael smiled. "Too bad. Can't exactly get away from her."

"Even if you love someone, it's sometimes better to leave. To protect them and others."

Michael laughed. "Dude, been there, done that. Do you know what happens when you leave the person your supposed to be with?"

"Yeah, I do. Eventually you move on." 'or at least one of you does' Angel thought bitterly.

"No. you both suffer. You try to find comfort in new people. Try new relationships. Try being friends. None of that stuff works though, because there is just you and her and nobody else comes close to that. And there is this tension that builds and builds until you can't take it anymore. And then one day BOOM, you're making love to her and confessing your undying love for hours on end. That is a waste of time. Trust me."

Angel sighed and pulled out a post it note that was in his pocket. "Alright then, take this. This is the address of a girl in Colorado who can help you. Tell her what happened to your girl and she will call a friend of hers who has experience in learning the kind of control your girl needs. Just try not to fight with her too much till then."

"Yeah, that's not possible. Thanks for the info man."

With that he walked away. Angel followed him out of the alley and saw him climb into a van filled with young people and his smiling girlfriend and sped away.Angel stood there for a long moment considering what the kid had said about love. If he was right, then Buffy wasn't the one. She had moved on, and meant it. It had taken years, but she had found love again, with Xander Harris of all people, and she was genuinely happy. He had seen that first hand. He'd been stalking her around the world for ages, and he'd seen just how happy she was. Maybe if she had been able to move on then one day he could too. Maybe if he actually tried, that is. Instead of wallowing in his loneliness and following her around so predictably that Spike was making bets about it.

He make his was down the street feeling his heart lighten as he went. Time to move on.

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**AN:** As promised, non freaky stalker Angel is back. 


	19. Don't Panic

**Disclaimer:** Buffy, Angel and Stargate all belong to other people.

**AN:** This was the start of the next story, but it tacks on the end pretty well. From here on out the chapter titles are inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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**Chapter 19: Don't Panic**

Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal'Doran, and Cameron Mitchell were in the commissary of Stargate Command having the most boring day in at least 3 years. That is until Daniel mentioned running into Lt. Jon O'Neill in a bar a month or so earlier.

"So you're saying that he went into a bar with one teenage girl, and came out with two teenage girls, Cassie, a pregnant brunet and a hot redhead?" Asked Mitchell

Daniel nodded.

"Nice."

Daniel gave him a dark look.

"Oh, come on! It had to be a joke. I mean come on."

"Well, I know that now. But it was odd. It felt like I was watching a male version of Hathor or something."

Vala put her hands on Daniel's shoulder and leaned her chin on them. "Yes well, I'm sure not all of them were involved with our clone. But one or two – "

This lurid thought was interrupted by the man himself skidding into the room and jogging across to them. He went straight to Cam.

"I really need your help."

All three of them looked confused.

"I'm supposed to be at the hospital right now for a baby delivery and my truck died. I really need a ride."

Vala smirked, Daniel looked horrified and Cam was the only one who could form words. "So the girl n the parking lot…."

"Oh, fer crying out loud. IT'S NOT MINE!!"

They all looked at him.

"Look, I'm the godfather and I promised Jonas I'd be there with him. Will somebody PLEASE give me a ride before he evicts me?"

Daniel was interested, but confused. "Jonas is having a baby, and he's your landlord?"

"Yes."

"Huh?"

"If you're that interested, I'll explain on the way."

They all looked to Cam, who just shrugged. "Oh, sure, why not, It'll be interesting at least."

When they were pulling past the outer perimeter of base security Daniel leaned up from his place in the back seat of the crew sized pickup and asked Jon, who was in the front, "Why him?"

"What?"

"You don't know Cam all that well, and he doesn't know Jonas except for reading about him in mission reports. Why did you ask him for a ride and not me?"

"I know Mitchell good enough to know that he doesn't drive like an 85 year old woman, like you do."

Vala laughed as Daniel sat back in his seat. When he glared at her she just smiled at him and patted his cheek.

"I do not drive that slow."

"Yes, you do." They all answered back.

"Fine, whatever. So Jon, explain this situation for us."

Jon sighed. "Ok. When Jonas relocated to Earth a few years ago he got a boatload of cash for finding a bunch of Naquada mines for us. He used part of that to buy a place on the edge of town and open an inn. It has a couple of small apartments up in the attic. When the Air Force stopped paying my expenses after graduation and I couldn't get into the Academy yet because my identity wasn't checking out, he gave me a job and one of the apartments. Cassie found out about it and moved in across the hall from me and rented her mom's place to SG-12. So, around that time, this woman, Dawn Summers, used the other big ass mansion out there to open a private corporate retreat for this big overseas place that she worked for. She stayed at the inn and they hit it off. 8 months later, she's pregnant, and he moves in with her and her daughter. End story."

"Uhuh, so who were those other women she was with that night at the bar?"

"Let's see. Robyn, younger redhead, she lives with Dawn for legal reasons. Vi, older redhead, Dawn's brother's girlfriend, they rent the cottage at the inn where Jonas used to live. Jenny, Dawn's adopted daughter. And of course Cassie. That whole scene was her idea by the way. She heard what you were accusing me of and couldn't help herself apparently."

Vala laughed. "Oh, I must meet this girl. I wonder how she became so mischievous with Daniel as a childhood influence."

Daniel was disgruntled. "She wasn't. Its apparently a recent development in her character."

Jon smiled brightly. "I'll take that as a complement. It wasn't all me though. The crowd we run with is the biggest bunch of smart ass you'll ever meet."

"I thought you were the only clone that Loki made?"

"Haha Daniel."


	20. The Perils of Hitchhiking

Disclaimer: All your shows are belong to someone else.

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**Chapter 20: The P****erils of Hitchhiking**

"But she's my little SISTER!"

"Well maybe you should have thought of that when she asked you to be her birth coach and you said, and I quote, 'I'm so not seeing a baby born that isn't coming out of me. And even then I'm not watching the gross part.'"

"I didn't think that would mean I couldn't be with her at all."

"She told you that the birth coach was the only one who would be in the room. She told you that even Jonas wasn't going to be in there."

"I didn't think she meant it."

"Too bad. She needs someone in there to help her with all the relaxation and breathing that she learned, and you can't do that."

"WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Buffy and Cassie turned and glared at the group that had just approached them in the hallway outside the delivery room Dawn was in.

"Back off Jon, this has nothing to do with you."

"Well, Buffy, I know that the argument itself is none of my business, but I figured that since the sound of Dawn screaming Cassie's name is echoing up and down the hall, I should see what is keeping her."

Cassie smirked, turned on her heel and entered the room. Buffy was pissed and stormed down the hall and out of the building. Presumably to take her ire out on something large and inanimate.

"And to thing, she's the older sister."

They all turned and glared at Vala.

"What, I could hardly have missed the declaration."

"And how old IS Dawn anyway?" Daniel had been wondering this since the pregnant woman had been connected with Jonas.

"25."

"Huh."

Jon looked at him accusingly. "It's not fair to judge. They've been together about a year and a half and their happy. It's only a 10 year age difference."

Daniel looked confused and then waved him off. "No. I wasn't thinking about that. You said one of the girls from the bar was her daughter. I was just trying to figure out the math, and it doesn't really work."

Jon was relieved, he didn't like the idea of people thinking Jonas was a cradle robber, especially since Jon himself had been involved with a few girls younger than Dawn in the last few years. He knew it wasn't the same, but he still felt old, even in this oh so young body.

"Oh, well Jenny is 16 now. The adoption didn't happen until about the time Dawn got pregnant, but she got Jenny when she was 11."

"Ah."

"Anyway, I gotta go find Jonas."

Daniel seemed to argue with himself for a moment. "I think I'll go with you. I want to congratulate Jonas, and I want to talk to Cassie later."

"Fine, sure, whatever."

Daniel turned to Vala. "Go back to the base with Cameron? Without arguing , please?"

Vala frowned, but nodded. "Fine, but you owe me. I don't get to leave the base that much you know."

"I know, thank you." He smiled at her and she grinned back and startled him with a heated kiss before she sauntered down the hall.

Jon smirked at him. "Ah, young love. Ain't it cute."

Cam laughed. "You ain't seen nuthin. That was shy flirting for her. Better go before she tries to jack my truck."

Daniel gave him a look and said, "I don't know. From my experience, you might enjoy that."


	21. No Good Tea Left In the Universe

**Disclaimer:** I barely own the computer I'm using to type this, so...

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**Chapter 21: No Good Tea Left in the Universe**

Jonas was sitting in the waiting room of Colorado Springs Medical Center waiting for his life to change, again. He couldn't believe that he was just waiting around for his son to be born. He should be with Dawn, helping her through it. His society was different from Earth society in a lot of ways, but the idea that a father should be there to welcome his child into the world was one that they shared. Everyone had been shocked when Dawn had announced that Jonas was the only person who was definitely NOT going to be in the delivery room. Apparently she refused to have him see her in that particular position. She actually said that it would ruin sex for her for the rest of her life if he saw that. On one hand, he was happy that she saw them together for the rest of her life, on the other, he really wished she would let him be there.

But she was adamant, and he couldn't argue with her, so here he was. At least she hadn't asked one of the other guys to be the coach. That would have gotten on his nerves, no doubt. Frankly he needed them to be there with him so he didn't go nuts. Jon, because he had been through it himself, and Spike because he served as a buffer between Jonas and Dawn's psychotic relations.

Spike and Vi had been enfolded into their odd little family almost immediately when they moved to town from Cleveland. Maybe it was because they were the only people besides the core 6 to know all of everyone's secrets, or maybe it was because they made the effort to look beyond the secrets and embrace the people.

Vi had taken a job in town with the laundry service that the inn and the Rest both used. She managed the pickups and deliveries and ran the storefront. She liked it and it was a totally non Slayer job, and it was the start to a career for her since she was planning on buying in as a partner after a couple of years.

Spike hadn't done much yet. It had only been a few weeks since he had been returned to the human state, and could think in terms of a human future. When Jon had gotten placed on a SG team at last, he had taken over helping Cassie with night managing the inn until she graduated. When she had decided that she wanted to go into running the inn full time as a career, he backed off and went to taking the girls on their patrols instead. Him being a vampire and Dawn being unable to do the physical side of Watching during her pregnancy, they had fallen into a pattern of sharing that role. But now he was human and she was at the end of her physical down time. Jonas knew that Spike was worried about what he would do when she was back in fighting form.

Him being human had cause a lot of disagreement in the Scooby family, mostly because Dawn had insisted that his new human identity be as her and Buffy's brother. Buffy had balked both because of her previous relationship with him, and because he would be younger than her. Vi had thought that argument was hysterical and nearly gotten beaten unconscious by the senior Slayer. A compromise had been reached and now Spike was legally William Thomas Summers, a 29 year old cousin with a birthday matching the morning of his resurrection. Of course Jenny had insisted that she and the baby would call him Uncle Spike, even though she never called Buffy by aunt. She thought it was more important to maintain the kinship with someone who was going to be around all the time, unlike Buffy who lived in Australia and visited rarely.

Jon had approached him and Dawn recently and asked what they thought about sneaking Spike into the Stargate Program. It seemed like a good use for his skills, but they were wary of him being on offworld missions a lot and how Vi would feel about that.

Jon was very different than Jack. It still amazed Jonas how well he had dealt with the whole idea of telling people about the Stargate. At the time he hadn't really questioned it. The situation being what it was, he really hadn't had time. When he had gone to him to ask why he had gone along with it , Jon answer had surprised him. He said that, though the secrecy was important, he couldn't let keeping that secret get good soldiers killed when telling would really hurt no one. Sending the slayers into a fight where they were expecting magic and getting alien tech could have done that. And he pointed out that they didn't really know more than most gouauld could have told them under the kind of interrogation that he expected they could administer. All logical, but none of it Jack. No, Jon was different, if only in the last 5 or so years. Then again, he had already known that really. Jack had never warmed to him at all in the time they worked together, but Jon had made a point of contacting him when he heard of his return to Earth. He had made a point of being a friend, and he had become, over time, Jonas' best friend, especially in the last couple of years.

And where was he?

"Jonas."

He looked up. "Finally. Where have you been?" He looked behind Jon and saw Daniel standing in the doorway. "Daniel, how are you?"

Daniel waved slightly and said, "I'm fine" and then motioned for him to continue his conversation with Jon.

"Sorry, but my truck stalled out at the base and I had to get a ride from Col. Mitchell. By the time we got here Buffy was in the hall screeching at Cassie about not being in the delivery room. I had to bust it up because Dawn was losing her shit on the other side of the door." He turned to Xander, who had been chatting with Willow about a new witch of hers until Buffy's name had been mentioned. "You really need to go talk to your girl. She's pretty pissed, but she'll be even worse if she misses anything, and things are getting kinda loud and final sounding down there."

Xander made a quick exit, followed closely by Giles and Willow. Even with them gone the place felt crowded. Vi and Spike were sitting with Lara, her husband George and their oldest son Milo. Robyn was sitting with her mother who had used TWERP for the first time to be here. Jenny was sitting with her boyfriend, one of Lara's other sons, Paul and a couple of the other Sunnydale Potentials who had been having a get together at Slayers Rest that week. Apparently this was the first baby born to any of the survivors of that war and that was a big deal for all of them. There were even a few people back at the mansion waiting on phone calls when the time came.

Daniel came over and they talked for a few minutes. They had always had an awkward kind of friendship, which was more than anyone had expected. After all Jonas was partially responsible for one of Daniel's deaths. Daniel was asking about the family when Buffy was dragged back into the waiting room by her boyfriend.

She stalked over to them. "Jonas, please go down there and talk to her. I just want to be there for her. I'm sure the whole only one person rule can be bent or something. It'll be easier for her if I'm with her."

Jenny responded to this from across the room. "Back off Buffy. Dad can't go in there either. And they can't bend the rule, she tried. She asked them if you could go in too and they told her that they have to have the room to maneuver in case of emergencies. So you being in there could make things worse if something happens. Now sit down and stop badgering my dad."

Buffy stared at her. She would have started another agreement, but the frazzled tone to the girl's voice, told her that she was scared. Instead she went to Jenny and hugged her. "I'm sorry; I just don't know how to deal with not being able to help her. Everything's going to be fine."

It was another hour before Cassie came in with a huge smile on her face. "He's perfect, and huge. 9 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long. Doctor says that there wasn't even a hiccup and that they will both be released in about 24 hours. Jonas and Jenny, room 312, she's waiting for you. The rest of us have to wait at least a few hours to see them, except for Buffy, who gets to go in as soon as she sends Jenny out."

The whole room was happy smiles as the new father and sister made their way out. Cassie went over to Jon and Daniel and sat down exhaustedly, leaning her head on Daniel's shoulder. "What brings you to the circus Danny?"

"Congratulating Jonas and checking up on you."

"Well, I'm here, check."

"Ok, how's your job going? Ready to trade up and come work for me?"

"Nope, I love my job."

"That's what I hear, just making sure. Sam asks about you every time she calls in you know."

"I miss her too. Do you tell her how great things are going, and that I don't need a babysitter?"

"Yes, I do. She still thinks I need one though."

"Well, maybe if you didn't have such a casual relationship with death she would be wrong."

Daniel laughed slightly. "Probably. Have you talked to Jack lately?"

"Not much. I think I creeped him out last time though. I told him all about Jon's love life."

"Bet that went well."

"Yeah, he called Jon and bitched him out for an hour for screwing around with teenagers. Jon told him that he was 20 and it was perfectly reasonable for him to date in his own damn age group. Then he told me that if I did that again, he was going to send a message to Sam with detail of my love life, including pictures and some audio recordings that he has."

"He will you know."

"And he can too. His bedroom shares a wall with mine and he takes walk of shame photos every time someone ever sleeps over. I think he saw it coming and prepared the blackmail material early."

They both laughed getting a glare from Jon, who was nearby flirting with a blonde slayer who he had spent a few nights with the previous year.

Jonas spent that night, after being kicked out of Dawn's hospital room by a pair of nurses, making sure everything was ready to bring home his new baby the next day.

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**AN: ** Jonas not being in the delivery room is no slight on him or anything. I just have this thing about not wanting to be seen that way and I sort of transfered that to Dawn. 


	22. Best Laid Plans of Mice

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything in this story except my original characters, such as they are.**  
**

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**Chapter 22: ****Best Laid Plans of Mice**

It had been 4 months since the birth of Arron James Quinn. AJ was a blessing to his family and a sense of calm seemed to radiate from him. He didn't fuss, barely cried, and smiled at everything. Jonas thought it was great. What could be better than a supremely happy baby? Dawn however was concerned that there might be some mystical thing about him that could put him in danger. She even called in Willow and her coven from Brazil to check it out. They told her that he wasn't showing any magical anything and she should just relax and enjoy her son.

So that's what she did. She still had the urge to be paranoid, but she squashed it down. One urge she wasn't squashing was the one to smack the next person who told her she spelled her kid's name wrong.

"It's not wrong."

"It looks wrong."

"Buffy, it's spelled the way it's supposed to be spelled. It's Jonas' grandfather's name, like James is Grandpa Jim's name. If I hear it one more time I'm gonna portal over there and smack you."

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you he's gonna have trouble learning to write it when he gets older."

"I don't think so. AJ is pretty easy to spell if you ask me." Of course Buffy didn't see the stupidity of someone with her name making fun of one that was just spelled differently.

Although this constant crap was annoying, it really didn't put a damper on the family. What did was 2 things really. One was that nobody really got why Jonas and Dawn didn't plan on getting married any time soon, and the other was Robyn graduating and deciding to attend Notre Dame.

Jonas had asked Dawn to marry him a month after AJ was born. She had been excited and overjoyed and had agreed immediately. She wore the ring, they were a family, but they didn't set a date. Truth was, they were happy how things were. Neither had been in a real committed relationship before and they were both nervous about rocking the boat. They loved each other and planned to be family forever, even have more kids, but they just wanted to enjoy the moment and coast a bit. Jenny thought they were crazy, but figured that nontraditional was traditional for them and let the whole thing go. She even made the suggestion that they keep their name even when they did get married. Any daughters they would have being Summers and any boys being Quinn.

Robyn's leaving hit them hard. She had been a part of their group from the beginning and they all missed her terribly. Jenny dealt with it by suggesting Dawn take on another slayer. She wanted a new person in the house to make up for the gap that Robyn left. Jonas had joked that at least she hadn't asked them to have another baby, but Dawn didn't really find that funny. She didn't take on a new slayer though, she took over Watching Vi instead. She hadn't really had a Watcher at all since leaving Cleveland, and Dawn thought that bringing someone new in for both of them was just a bit excessive since there were people to fill the roles there already. Jenny pouted a bit, but thought Dawn replacing one redhead with another was rather funny.

Spike was pretty much adjusted to the idea of being only human. The only problem he had ever really had was that he missed the superhuman strength. Now that he had gotten used to the human frailty thing he was jumping into real life with both feet. He took one big cue from Jonas and proposed to Vi. There was a good bit of outrage about that, but they had actually been together the longest of any of the couples they knew. Unlike Jonas, Spike took the affirmative response very seriously and dragged Vi off and married her on the spot. Around that same time he decided to put his century worth of knowledge and secret studiousness to work for him and, with the help and support of the council, created himself a fake doctorate from a small yet respectable school in southern England (which just so happened to be owned and run by affiliates of the WC who helped them with the education of Watchers all the time). Now Spike was William Thomas Summers, PhD of history with a special focus on the Victorian Era and the Industrial Revolution. He didn't have a job yet, but one thing at a time.

Everything was pretty much perfect.


	23. Learning To Fly

**Disclaimer:** So Not Mine

**AN:** All of this crap that I'm about to spew on history and stuff….pay no attention to content please. It is crap, and I don't want to taint any minds with it. You know what really sucks though? One day I wrote an Epilogue and 3 one-shot stories, now I'm struggling with a chapter in a week. So not fair. Small mention of Jack/Sam ship here and it assumes that Sam returned to Earth from Atlantis at some point previous. I just couldn't help myself.

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**Chapter 23: The Secret to Flying…..**

Five Months Later

Daniel was bored out of his mind. "Why are we here again?"

Jack just looked at him and smirked. "Because you made me come?"

Daniel rolled his eyes at his friend. "Ok, that's why you are here, but why did they send me here?"

"Ah, that one is easy." He clapped Daniel on the shoulder. "You were pestering your general to get more historians and archeologists into the program, so he sent you to this very boring seminar for young history people to find you some crackpots."

"Right." While he wasn't exactly correct, Jack had the gist of the situation. General Landry had sent him to Arlington to check out this convention of the 'Young Historian's Society for the Sharing of Knowledge' in the hope of finding a few people to recruit into the program. It was hoped that they could snatch up some more obscure scholars, some that wouldn't get the kind of questions that Daniel himself got. That was a good idea in theory, except that this particular group of people were stauncher and more set in their ways than many of their aged colleagues.

"What a group of poncy little gits."

Daniel turned his head in the direction of the voice he had just heard. The man was sitting in the back row of the auditorium, flicking a lighter and muttering to himself about "idealized views" and "wouldn't have been so poetic about it if you'd of been there". He was an odd and familiar looking man. Lightly tanned complexion, brown tousled hair, sharp blue eyes, rail thin and wearing what looked like a black leather duster over black slacks and a white high collared shirt, and a pair of very stylish glasses.

"Hey, Jack." Daniel nudged his friend. "That guy looks kind of familiar to me. Do you recognize him?"

Jack sat up from his lazy pose and turned to where Daniel was pointing. He raised an eyebrow and inspected the stranger. "Noooo. Doesn't look very professory to me though."

"No, he doesn't. I wonder if he's a member, or just sitting in?" This question was answered a moment later when the current lecturer finished his presentation and the next was called up.

"I'd now like to introduce one of our newer members. His major area of study is the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Era, but he is here today to discuss Ancient Chinese folklore and it's impact on the modern world." The audience clapped politely and the man in the back row stood, dropped his leather coat and made his way to the stage.

"Good afternoon, I'm William Summers."

Daniel was fairly riveted by Dr. Summers' lecture. This guy was smart. Not many people went into China and gathered information on that origins and philosophical meaning behind the oldest of their lore, only to find a modern context and understanding for them. Lots of people had done one or the other, or combined the work of the two sides, but he had done all of it and understood a great deal about the culture that many missed.

He found himself wondering about the few Mandarin influenced planets that the program had visited. Would this man catch things that they had missed, would he be able to deal more comfortably with the leaders than the previous attempts? There weren't many Chinese representatives at the SGC, and all of them were military, no civilians, and nobody familiar with the ancient political system. No to mention that Summers seemed rather uncomfortable in his academic surroundings. He looked like someone who like to learn new things, not sit around and discuss things that were already picked over a century ago.

"I think I might have found someone after all." He looked over at Jack, who was now dozing in the chair next to him and rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Why did I have to get married? It's my own damn fault. Bloody woman. 'No more smoking Spike, It could actually kill you now.' Stupid."

Spike wanted a smoke, and he wanted one badly. It had been months since he had had a cigarette. It was a lot harder to give up a habit like that after a good hundred years than you would think, considering that the actual nicotine had never been a factor for him. Vampires don't actually circulate the stuff after all. But it was a habit, something he did a lot for a very long time, and damn if it wasn't frustrating to have to give that up when he became human.

He was sitting in the back of the auditorium again. The lighter flicking, another habit, was distracting him from the deadly boring nonsense spewing from the mouths of his 'collogues' mouths. How these people just sat and listened to this repeated crap was beyond him. Some of this was recycled from when he had been a teenager. The only reason he was here was to establish an identity within this community, so that he could get a job at some school and teach real history to people. He rather liked the idea of putting the knowledge he had gained during his demonic period to use for him. Make himself a nice cushy little life off of his ill gotten gain so to speak.

Giles had been the one to suggest getting a history degree. Told him to come up with a dissertation and then the school would take care of the rest. Spike thought it was kind of funny that a habit of playing with his food and getting stories from terrified geeks for entertainment was apparently enough to get him a PhD. Hell, his whole lecture on Chinese folklore was extrapolated mostly from a few drunken weeks after killing his first slayer. Just wandering around villages and getting people to tell him stories so he wouldn't eat them. Learned a fair bit of Chinese at that time too.

It was amazing how everything had turned out. He had a wife, a family, and almost a really good career. All he had to do was work for it and he would have everything. Vi was the best part. When he had shown up on Buffy's doorstep after the big battle with the Black Thorn he had hoped that she would forgive him and take him back. It had nearly shattered him when she rejected him completely and decided that she would stake the next vampire to get anywhere near her. He had run back to the states and brooded about it with Angel for nearly a year before he decided to just move on. It had been hard to give up on that love, that obsession, but he found that fighting the good fight made it easier not to dwell on it. That one slayer, Mel, had been a wakeup call. Just a casual friend that killed bad guys with him and then, whoops, sex. It had messed up the friends thing, but it hadn't hurt. It hadn't felt like he had betrayed anyone, and he hadn't felt guilty. That was when he knew that he had finally gotten over Buffy. It was a little while after that that he had gone to Cleveland to visit with the Minis. Word had gotten back to him that they had had a fit when his secret got out. Kinda made him feel good to know that they had missed him. Vi had been the one to hold out the longest. All of the other girls had smacked him around a bit and moved on, she had knocked him unconscious twice and refused to talk to him for a week. She said it was punishment for breaking rule number one. She eventually forgave him, and they were fast friends. It was amazing to have a friend like that without any of the baggage that came with trying to be close with any of the Scoobies. He sent rare gifts to Dawn, and a few letters, but avoided the rest completely.

Angel had hated it when he caught on to Spike and Vi's more than friends relationship. He had made all the snide cracks about age gaps and knowing her since she was a kid. Of course Spike had countered that with the fact that an over 200 year old guy who perved on a 15 year old girl really had no room to judge anyone. Angel had stopped going on about it, but it still bothered him. So things went from him and Angel stopping in every so often, to Spike moving in to the Slayer house to help, to Spike and Vi living in the same room and playing house parents to the place. Of course that had been a rather open secret. Nobody wanted to be the one to inform the Council of the new arrangement, so word tricked down casually and everyone pretended not to know. By the time that Buffy had moved to Africa to be with Xander full time Spike was genuinely happy for her. They had both moved on and were happier for it. Angel hadn't reacted so well. When Spike had mentioned it, ok he rubbed it in the first chance he got, the great prat had had a fit. He went on and on about how unsafe it was there, how the human evils were overwhelming and how she couldn't protect herself. He had disappeared soon after, only to show up at her home and follow her around the continent. Everybody knew what he was doing, but Buffy had put it out there that if he wanted to see her happy for a change, then he was welcome to it. She didn't want a big confrontation that solved nothing, so they left it alone.

But now they were all well adjusted adults and everything. Spike had a strong happy wife, Buffy had a fairly normal life that she loved, and Angel had moved on from his stalking to follow some other path. Spike idly wondered if Angel knew about his new human status. He would pay to see the reaction that got out of the big Poof.

After a few minutes a man sat down next to him and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, have we met? You look familiar, but I can't place you."

Spike looked at him. Glasses, cropped brown hair and the anthropological uniform, kakis and ugly sweater with loafers. But then he did look familiar. "Oh, yeah, you were there when my nephew was born, or cousin I should say. You were chattin with Jonas."

Daniel finally placed him. "That's right." Something was off though. "It's the hair!"

Spike just looked at him like he was an idiot. Daniel reddened slightly. "You were blonde then, made an impression. That's why I couldn't place your face. Dr. Daniel Jackson."

Spike nodded. "Yeah, my wife said it didn't look professional enough, made me give up the peroxide. Name's William, most that I like call me Spike though. You're a friend of the landlord too, right? Cas said something about you working with her mum at the base."

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, I work with Jon too, and his dad. That's him over there napping. Jack O'Neill."

Spike snorted. "So, that's what Casanova 's gonna look like when he gets older. Looks like a long career ahead of him then."

"Just don't mention it in front of his wife. Sam had a hard enough time pinning him down, she might shoot you for putting ideas in his head."

They both laughed slightly and Daniel cleared his throat again. "Anyway, I would like to offer you the opportunity to work with us on a government project. If you can pass our vetting process we have an opening in my department at NORAD that you would be perfect for. Plus it's local to your home and the travel opportunities are amazing."

"Huh. What made you want me? You didn't even recognize me."

Daniel smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Honestly, I came here looking for people and you are the only person here that didn't put me to sleep. I'm all about understanding the past, but these people don't seem to get the interactive process of discovery. They just want to read the most books and memorize the most data that someone else found. I need people who are more adventurous than that. Plus, you are willing to go outside your area of expertise to study other things that interest you. I like that, and It comes in handy in my work."

"What kind of work is that? I thought you all were doing some kind of radar thing down there."

"That's just the general thrust of the whole thing. They need people to make sure sites are viable for construction, and most of those sites are remote and covered with historically significant finds that must be removed and documented before they can tear the place up."

Daniel held his breath for a moment. The cover story had been altered a few times to make it more believable, but there was still the chance he wouldn't buy it. Spike knew it was crap, but made him squirm for a while before he nodded. "Sounds different. Vi doesn't really want to move to some college campus anyway. Why not? Do what you need to and give me a call."

"I'll do that, thanks. See you soon." Daniel made his way to Jack and nudged him awake. "All done, time to go. Sam said there was cake for us at the house."

Jack smiled broadly. "The perfect wife. Cooks, bakes, does the laundry and brings home the bacon."

Daniel laughed as they made their way out of the building. "Too bad you had to retire just to ask her out."

"A sacrifice I was more than willing to make Danny."

* * *

AN: I did saddle Daniel with the early crappy wardrobe, but I felt that it fit the environment of the story. Gotta blend in with the geeks. 


	24. Beaurocracy Sucks

Disclaimer: I own nothing of either of the series featured in this story. All rights belong to the creators of the shows and the production companies that made them.

**AN:** I love Spike. I also love that no one has flamed me or anything for pairing him with Vi instead of Buffy or one of the others. I put up a discussion about this series on the TtH boards under Crossovers: Stargate, so if anyone wants to talk about it a bit more than just a review I would love to get into it. Maybe y'all can help me work out some future stuff and give me some ideas.

**AN2:** We are now up to 2 years after the start of Contact with the Great Unknown. This chapter is about a week after the last one. AJ is about 10 months old.

* * *

**Chapter 24: Bureaucracy Sucks**

Dawn was still laughing ten minutes after Spike told her about his run in with Dr. Jackson.

"It's not that bloody funny Dawn."

"Yes it is. We were so concerned about how Vi would feel about us getting you into the SGC and you went and did it all by yourself cause you thought Vi would be happier. That's all circular and shit."

"Whatever." Spike rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, will the background stuff check out or not? I don't want them digging around and causin' a stink with the rest of the world when things come up fishy."

"It's fine. Everything was done magically. There are even pictures of you in the yearbooks with other students. All of the paper stuff will check out easy, and if they talk to alumni they will get a bunch of watchers who know what to say now that I called Giles and gave him the heads up. No worries."

"Thanks Niblet."

"No biggie, and for cryin' out loud, stop calling me that. I'm all regular sized now, and you no longer eat people. Don't make me start calling you Big Willie. I will do it you know."

"Fine, whatever, Sunrise."

"That's better, at least it makes sense."

* * *

Dawn was pretty sure that Willow was wrong. There was no way that AJ was perfectly normal. He was 10 months old, he could walk, he could nearly talk, and he never cried. Like ever.

Some of that she could attribute to him inheriting some of Jonas' natural learning skills and intelligence, or even hers, but something felt just a little bit off. Like for instance right now. He was standing holding on to the edge of the coffee table in the family room, and he wanted his teddy bear which was on the other side of the room. Instead of him going and getting it, he called it to him and it flew over on it's own.

Willow was definitely wrong.

* * *

Dawn was playing with AJ in the yard later that afternoon when a young woman appeared at the gate.

"Can I help you" she asked as she made her way to the gate with AJ on her hip.

"Yeah. I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you needed any help. Like a babysitter or help cleaning or anything really."

Dawn looked at her. She was a cute short blonde girl with sad scared eyes and a nervous air about her. She seemed shy and she was pushing herself just having the conversation. She also looked tired and underfed. It wouldn't surprise Dawn if she had been on the street for at least a few nights.

"Why don't you come in and we can talk about it." Dawn keyed in her access code and the gate opened.

"Thanks. My name is Ava." She came through the gate and smiled shyly.

"I'm Dawn and this is my son AJ. My daughter Jenny is inside making lunch with their dad, Jonas. Why don't you join us and we can see what you can do for us."

Dawn hired Ava that afternoon. She was a homeless 20 year old with no family and no home to go back to. She was going to be Dawn's assistant. Anything that needed to be done, she would do. This worked out well because there were always little things that needed doing that Dawn really didn't have time for and ended up either not getting done or being done by Jenny when she had time.

They had to explain the whole Slayer/Demon/Magic thing to her, but she took it in stride. A few days later she trusted them enough to reveal that she was not entirely human herself. She was a genetically engineered half alien/half human hybrid with all the memories of an alien queen who had been murdered with her family many years earlier. She didn't go into details, but she said that there were others, some dead, and that she was on her own and just wanted to live her own life here and now. She had some pretty cool and useful powers too.

AJ loved her and she ended up being more of an au per than anything else. After a few months she started trying to teach him to control the odd abilities that he had been exhibiting. By the time Spike got the job at the SGC AJ was showing telekinesis and some telepathy. He sent thoughts of what he wanted into the mind of whoever was watching him. Ava managed to get them to start ignoring it so that he would try and ask out loud.

Willow was stumped when Dawn called her about all of the things her son could do. She said that is wasn't magic, but a natural psychic ability that he just had. She did say that she would send a couple of people by to check him out again, but that they wouldn't be able to come for a while. Dawn and Jonas joust shrugged to each other and carried on. Weird was normal to them.


	25. I Hate Thursdays

**Disclaimer:** All your shows are belong to someone else

**AN:** Thanks for the love people. I'm totally flattered that I got nominated for best series and best portrayal of Dawn for the first story. Love y'all.

* * *

**Chapter 25: I hate Thursdays**

The first week that Spike worked at the SGC was a little nerve wracking because he had to constantly pretend that he knew nothing about the place. It wasn't that much of a stretch anyway since Jon and Jonas refused to give out any of the details of how the place was run and who worked there. Cassie didn't know much about it at this point, but she would only tell him about her mom, Daniel and Sam, the people she had contact with. The pretending didn't last that long though. Since he was friends with Jon, they all just assumed that he had given him all the info since his recruitment.

Other than that things went smoothly. He started out doing the gate training and going through certain mission reports to see if he had anything to add to the findings, or advice on how to deal with certain civilizations. They wouldn't assign him to a team for at least 3 months, so he was going to be a floater. He didn't mind. This was a lot to get used to on top of everything else; taking it slow was for the best. Now if only he could find some way to gloat about it to Angel.

* * *

The day that Jon met Ava for the first time was highly amusing to Jonas and Dawn.

His charming young man act, which had worked with nearly every girl they knew, went right past her. He even tried boyish humor.



She thought he was immature and smarmy.

Jon was offended by the jab at his maturity. "I'm way older than her."

Dawn patted him on the head. "Not really."

* * *

Jonas loved to spend time with his son. He and AJ played together every day. They did errands together. Jonas even took him to business meetings. There was a playpen in the office at the inn and one in Cassie's apartment, where most of the work was actually done anyway. Today they were gong to the SGC together to see some of Jonas' old friends and take care of a little business for Cassie and Jonas.

"Jonas, what's with the stow away?" asked Jon as Jonas carried AJ out of the elevator on the way to the General's office.

"Sam and Jack are here visiting with SG-1 and they wanted to meet him. Besides I need to talk with Landry and no one was home to watch him."

"Isn't that Ava's job?"

"Yes, most of the time, but she and Dawn went to London on Council business today."

"Huh?"

"Ava is helping out with something. I don't know what. I didn't ask."

"Oh, well…….. Why does she hate me?"

Jonas laughed at his friend. "You'll have to ask her."

Jon grimaced and took AJ from Jonas' arms. "No thanks. I'll take the rugrat to Spike's office while you talk to the General. SG-1 isn't due back for another couple of hours and Jack and Sam are taking a short trip to visit her dad right now. They'll be back just after the team comes in."

"Sure. Just make sure AJ doesn't mess up any of his Uncle Spike's work. And keep an eye out for…. Stuff." Jonas looked at him pointedly. Jon nodded, understanding that he was to keep AJ from displaying his abilities to the base personnel.

When Jonas was finally sitting down with General Landry and saw the grim and odd look on the other man's face he started to worry.



"What is this about sir?" He had picked up the habit of military address when he worked here and never lost it.

"It has come to my attention, Mr. Quinn, that you have compromised the security of the Stargate program."

Jonas sat forward a bit. "Excuse me?"

"Yesterday, a group led by someone calling herself Willow appeared at the gate. They dropped an unconscious body on the ground and stated that he was one of ours. When the guard asked what she meant by that she said that 'They said you needed to know if we found any more of them, so we figured it would be best if you got him alive.' After that she made a phone call and your name was mentioned pretty loudly. Now what is even odder about this is that the entirety of the group she was with was young people, with massive mideval weapons. It turns out that their gift was a go'auld called Eros who had been working with Ba'al and the Trust. Care to explain that?"

Jonas was totally shocked. What had possessed Willow to do such a stupid thing? And how the hell had she gotten here? Dawn certainly wouldn't have sent her, and if she had she would have told him. "I have no idea what that was about sir. I do know that a certain private organization is aware of the Stargate program and what you do, but I don't know anything about this specific incident."

He chose his words carefully. There was a vague plan in place just in case this ever came up, but it was very vague. All he knew for sure to say was that he hadn't spilled the beans and neither had Jon or Spike. Also he had to call Dawn and Giles to arrange a briefing with the WC and the SGC. He was actually glad that Jack and Sam were around. He really wanted to keep Cassie's name out of this, but them being there would come in handy if it did. This was so not good.

* * *

**AN:** Ok, done with this now. Just needed to cement the background for the next fic cause I didn't want to just jump in with all the changes. Up next: Intergalactic portals, secret organizations revealed, secret identities revealed, Adria is a bitch, Angel shows his face (but not in Colorado, cause I totally said "never return" and that would be wrong of me), the Antaran alien issue is resolved (sort of), and much more.

Sorry this took so long. The next story is done and I'll be updating it once a week starting Friday. It's called Connections. Also, I know that Selmak and Jacob are dead in cannon on SG1, but NOT here. :)


	26. Connections: 1

**Chapter 26**

**AN: **This was technically the start of a whole new story as originally written and posted on TTH, so this and the next chapter take place BEFORE Chapter 25, timeline wise.

* * *

The waving and refracting of the portal went unnoticed by the room's occupants. There were two. One was obviously a demon. He looked a lot like Grimace from the old McDonalds commercials actually. The rounded body and purple blue fur with arms and legs just poking out. The other one was a human, or it looked like one anyway. The man was tall and lithe with a lovely face and wavy hair. That picture was marred by his odd distorted voice and the odd golden glow to his eyes. The room was a sad dirty place. It was a tack room off the stable of Senator James Martin's farm in South Carolina. The two unlikely companions were in the middle of a ritual. The man was pacing in a circle around the demon tossing herbs as the big demon chanted and drew symbols on the ground in front of him.

They never finished the ritual. A wild arrow came soaring through the portal and startled them so much that the demon drew a line through his symbols and stopped chanting as the man dropped the rest of his herbs onto the floor in a heap. They turned and looked at the wall where the arrow had come from. The dark of the room masked the strange warbling of the wall, the motion like the heat from flames blowing over the surface. Both continued to stare for a moment, until a figure stepped out of the wall like a ghost..

"What are you guys doing in here? Not something good, I know that for sure."

The woman was a small redhead with power radiating from her. She took in the room and its occupants and asked the man "Who are you? I know what he's up to, but why are you helping him enslave someone?"

The man looked at her and began raging. "How dare you question the actions of your god? Bow down pitiful human and beg forgiveness for your heresy. Bow before your god."

"Huh. One of those guys. Still doesn't explain the whole partnering up with a demon thing."

"Do not – "

The man was cut off by the appearance of 3 more people behind the offending human woman. One was an average looking young woman with long wavy dark blond hair and full lips, wearing jeans and a t shirt. She was crackling with the same power as the first intruder. Next to her was a young man with wild brown hair and intense eyes carrying a crossbow and a short sword. He had another sort of power, one that was familiar to the golden eyed man, but out of place. Finally there was a rather short blond girl who had an animal presence about her. She carried a very large and kind of scary looking axe.

The battle was quick. The predatory girl and the intense young man hacked away at the demon while the other women used their power to subdue the man. Once the demon was dead and the man was tied up they questioned him. All he would say was "I am your god and you will learn to submit to my will." After a few minutes the redhead sighed and made a call on her cell phone.

"Hey, um, got a small problem here."

"..."

"Yeah, well it was a Cregnar demon like I thought, but he wasn't alone."

"…"

"No not the big group I sensed either. It's one of those sluggy snakey things like Dawn killed that time."

"…"

"Yeah, the aliens."

This statement got her startled looks from the young man and woman. She just looked at them and shrugged. She would explain more later.

"He's not really in the mood to answer questions and stuff. We really can't keep him either. Last time Dawn almost got killed and this is so not my area."

"…"

"Ok, I'll figure something out to do with him. Kay. Bye."

When she finished her call she turned to her group. "This guy is one of a race of parasitic aliens that wanna take over the world and stuff. We don't see them a lot. There is this military group that usually deals with them and they might be able to figure out what he was up to better than us. I think we should give him to them so they can deal with it."

"How do you know he's trying to take over the world?" asked the young man.

"Cause I've heard they did it once before and they keep showing up here and trying to exterminate the planet with big ass bombs and stuff."

"Ok, how do we deliver him?"

"I'm thinking we drop him off on their doorstep and run like hell to regroup and make a plan to talk with them."

The young woman looked skeptical. "How do we know we can trust this military group? Some bad stuff went down with the military before with you guys."

"We've got some people working there. You know Dawn's family right?"

The other three nodded.

"Jonas used to work there and so did Cassie's mom. Jon and Spike work there now. They are of the good."

"So are we calling Dawn for a ride or what?" asked the girl.

"I don't wanna risk it. Those things freak her out and I don't want him around her or AJ. I think we're gonna take the direct route."

The girl looked concerned. "Isn't that like a huge power drain?"

"Yeah, but Maria can boost me and it won't drain me as much."

The young woman, Maria, looked skeptical. "Are you sure Willow?"

Willow smiled. "Sure. I used to do it a lot with Andrew before Dawn started doing her TWERP thing. Just grab my hand and Michael's. Josie can take my other hand and Michael and Josie can hold Snake Boy."

Josie giggled. "He's pretty hot for a snake."

Willow rolled her eyes at the girl. "Just try not to grope him too much. We don't' want him too traumatized to answer all the questions later."

The group arranged themselves in a circle and after a moment of building power they disappeared with a pop.


	27. Connections: 2

**Chapter 27**

**AN:** Ok, only the first part of this chapter takes place before Chapter 25. After this it's all lined up again.

* * *

General Hank Landry was fuming by the time the security team had gathered in the briefing room. There had been a severe security breach at the base and he had no idea what had happened, or how, or why.

Sir, we have the security tape and the guards on duty."

"Alright Sergeant. Play the tape first."

On the tape was a view of the front gate of the Cheyenne Mountain complex and the security post there. The area was empty for a few moments and then a small group of five people just appeared out of nowhere. One of them is tied and gagged. The tied up man is dropped by a girl, who can't be more than 18, onto the ground by the booth and the oldest of the group says something to the guards. Then she takes out her cell phone and has a conversation for about 2 minutes before the 4 unbound strangers join hands and disappear just as mysteriously as they had arrived.

"Why the hell were they able to just stand there and not be detained?" The General was flabbergasted and pretty pissed off.

One of the guards spoke up. "We were sort of In shock sir. I mean this little girl had just picked up a grown man and dropped him on our doorstep after magically appearing there. Then there is what they said. By the time we realized they were going to leave, they were already gone."

"And just what did they say that was so startling?"

"The oldest, the redhead, said 'We found one of your evil alien guys and figured you'd want him.'. Then she made a phone call and identified herself as Willow after which she actually said, in the course of conversation, that 'duh, I know better than to just blab out Jonas' name to the guys'."

"Jonas?"

"That's what she said. And then she said 'gotta go' and they all joined hands and she said a little gibberish and they were gone."

"Ok…..that is fairly startling and bizarre behavior." Landry was a bit confused and disconcerted. The name however led him to one very uncomfortable conclusion. Jonas Quinn had compromised the security of the SGC, and he was going to explain.

* * *

It took him until the next day to get Jonas to the base. When he questioned the man he had be very vague about what he knew about the situation, but seemed willing to cooperate as long as he got to make a phone call. The General allowed it, but insisted on the call being made on a secure base line with him listening in and recording it.

/Hello brother person./

"Dawn."

/Jon why do you sound weird?/

"No baby, it's me./

"Oh, Spike calling for the dirty phone sex huh?/

"Not funny and really not the time Dawn."

/Ok, what's wrong Jonas? Did something happen to one of the kids? Or one of the guys? You're kinda giving me a wiggins here./

"Everyone is fine. I got called to the base because there was a security breach yesterday. Someone dropped off a package and used my name when they did it."

/She did what!! I am so going to murder her. She gave them your name? Shit. Ok, we'll be there in like 10 minutes. Just go to a place with enough room for the London crowd and activate the amulet./

"Sure."

/Hey, where is AJ?/

"Jon has him in Spikes office."

/Ok well try and get them in there too. Ok? /

"Yeah, ok. Love you. Bye."


	28. Connections: 3

**Chapter 28**

* * *

Dawn was a lot more scared by the situation than she had let on to Jonas. She knew that the SGC was a trustworthy organization and that the people directly in charge would deal with them fairly, but she worried about the consequences for her family. Cassie had been the one to tell them about the Stargate because they knew it was a loophole due to her never signing any nondisclosure agreement of any kind, but Jon and Jonas had been there and should have tried to stop her, or report it in. Then there was the fact that they had killed one of the go'auld and disposed of the body privately instead of getting the SGC involved. There could be a backlash. Jonas and Cassie were aliens after all. They could be deported off world. Jon could be locked up or worse if it came out to higher ups that he was a clone of a now retired General. This had to be taken care of and smoothed over as quickly as possible.

"GILES!!"

Giles ran over to her in a panic. "What's wrong Dawn?"

"Willow fucked up and they dragged Jonas to the base for violating security." She was getting slightly high pitched and panicy.

"Dear lord. What are you planning?" He was tempted to take over the situation and be the one to take care of it for her, but they had a plan for this. Dawn had insisted that there be a backup, just in case, cover your ass, plan ready for dealing with the SGC. And since it was in her slayers' patrol area and her family was involved she got to call the shots on it.

"Gather the Geek squad and Ava. I'm going in with a portal keyed to Jonas' amulet in 5 minutes and then I'll get Willow's team from there. While I'm distracting the military with magic, you call Jenny and Vi and tell them to go to the front gate to be brought down. Jon and Spike are there already and so is AJ."

Giles nodded and ran down the hall to retrieve Ava, Andrew and his assistant Gwen.

* * *

"Mr. Quinn, what is going on?" General Landry was following Jonas out of his office and into the briefing room. The other man hadn't said a word since he finished his phone call just moments earlier. When they got into the room Jonas cleared a large space in one corner and then went to the phone on the large table.

"Just calling together a couple of people who are already on base sir. If you don't mind." Landry sighed loudly and nodded. Whatever got him to the bottom of this fastest.

"Hey, can you guys come down to the conference room?"

The General had no idea who was on the other end of the line, or how Jonas had known the extension to call.

Jonas hung up and turned to him. "Can SG-1 and the O'Neills be here as well? They may be able to help with the go'auld part of the problem if they are willing."

Landry considered this for a moment. Jack and Sam weren't really part of the SGC anymore, but they had a lot of experience with the Trust and the go'auld, and SG-1 was a front line team who were well equipt for a lot of different situations. It wouldn't hurt to know that he could trust the people he sent to deal with this. "Alright. I'll contact the team and the site where Jack and Sam are visiting Jacob and get them back early." The mission that SG-1 was on was an archeological dig and most of the team would be thrilled to come home early anyway.

Jonas was standing in the cleared out corner, fiddling with an amulet hanging around his neck when Lieutenant O'Neill and Dr. Summers entered the room, a toddler holding one hand of each and walking unsteadily between them. Landry was preparing to question them when he heard a voice yell. "Ok, move baby." Jonas quickly stepped out of the corner and a group of five calmly walked in through the wall there.

The General nearly fell into a chair near where he had been standing. He just didn't know how to respond to this. He put it aside for the moment and called Walter to tell him to get SG-1 and the O'Neills back on base NOW!

"Yes sir. The former General and the Colonel arrived a few minute ago. Jacob had to handle something apparently."

"Fine, I really don't care right now Walter, get them up here right now and hurry up and get the team."

He hadn't meant to be rude to the man, but he had no patience at all right now and he knew he wasn't getting a good answer until the whole group was together.

While he had been on the phone the newly arrived group was saying hello to the men already there.

"What's AJ doing here?" the young woman with long brown hair asked Jonas in an odd irritated tone.

"I brought him to meet some friends that came to visit. I really had no idea this was going to happen today or I would have waited until Jenny got home from school to come." Jonas sounded a little defensive.

The woman sighed and went to pick up the child. "It's ok. I probably would have had Jenny bring him anyway. I don't think I'm going to want to leave him with an outsider for a long time after this." The little boy squirmed in her arms and she handed him over to the other brunet with the group when he reached for her.

Meanwhile the blond young man and the older man had been on cell phones that rightly shouldn't have worked under the mountain. After a moment they both hung up and the younger man went to confer with the woman who was apparently Dawn, and the other came over to the General. "Excuse me. There will be three young women at the gate shortly, arriving by car, that will need to be brought down One is a minor belonging to Dawn over there, one is Cassandra Frasier and the other is Dr. Summers' wife."

Landry was completely confused by now, and trying to figure out why children were needed for this meeting was something he didn't think he would be able to process at the moment. He picked up the phone and called the security center to arrange for the next guests to be brought down.

Just then former General Jack O'Neill and his wife Colonel Samantha Carter O'Neill entered the room with confused looks on their faces.

"Jonas, Mini-Me, what the hell is going on in here?"

Jon just rolled his eyes and looked at Dawn. "No, don't want to hear it. Never ever."

She just smiled at him and opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off. "No."

She shrugged and turned to Jack. "Take a seat, we're waiting on some more guest before we start the party."

Jack turned to Landry and raised an eyebrow. Landry just shook his head and pointed to a couple of chairs on his side of the table.

Dawn moved over to the table and pulled a small bowl, a lighter and a baggy of herbs out of her purse. She gathered a small group of herbs that looked to be tied together with string, placed them in the bowl lit them and murmured some words. When this was done the group of strangers stepped away from the corner and the four people from the incident the previous day walked through the wall just as the first group had done.

The next thing they knew the man with the new arrivals had a sword pointed at the girl holding Dawn's son.

"Tess put the kid down. NOW!!"

"Michael?" The girl looked confused and surprised, but she just held the boy tighter and turned her body so that he was out of the reach of the weapon.

"Who the hell else? Aren't you supposed to be dead?" The young man was furious and apparently didn't notice the blonde man until he was in his face.

"Put the sword away and back off!" Everyone who knew him seemed surprised at this outburst.

"Andrew, don't!"

He turned. "Ava, I'm not going to let this moron threaten you."

Michael looked confused and was about to speak again when one of the chairs nearby levitated and smacked against him, knocking him to the floor.

Jack jumped up. "What the hell is going on in here!"

Everyone turned to look at him as if to say 'back off buddy' and he threw up his hands and turned to his wife.

"Jack, they aren't going to answer us right now, so just sit down and wait." Sam was as curious and confused as him, but she was trying to be a bit patient. Just then they heard the announcement of "Offworld Activation" and Landry picked up the phone and checked in with security.

He hung up and said, "The girls are on their way down and the team will be here in 10 minutes."

Michael was still on the ground watching Andrew hug Ava and the both of them praising the baby for defending her. "Ava." She turned to him. "I'm sorry. I thought –"

She cut him off. "It's ok Michael. I wasn't sure who you were at first either."

Jon missed this exchange as he was fuming. He walked over to Michael, picked him up by his shirt and slammed him against the, now apparently solid, wall behind him. "What the hell is your problem man? Do you usually go around threatening women and children like that?"

Ava handed AJ off to Andrew and walked over to them. "Thank you Jon, but it's really OK. I look just like someone else, and he was reacting to Tess. Just put him down and I'll explain later."

She put a hand on his shoulder and he let go and walked away. Andrew had a dirty look on his face until she went back to him and held his hand.

"Did you know about that?" Dawn asked Jonas from where she was sitting in his lap.

"Which part?"

"Well, the look alike part I knew. But the Andrew thing?"

He smiled. "Well I did know that she didn't start her snark war with Jon until she heard him picking on Jenny for the crush she used to have on him when we all first met. And she calls London a lot more than she really has to."

Dawn grinned and leaned in to him. "Aw. That is so sweet. Andrew bagged himself an alien. Does he know?"

Jonas shrugged. "I have no idea."

Dawn frowned. "Well I hope so. Ava is in on the plan for full disclosure and wants to tell about herself as well. I think she's hoping to get it off her chest and not have to hide things from her friends anymore."

The door opened and Jenny Cassie and Vi entered. Jenny ran to her parents and asked. "Is this really it? We're spilling everything?"

They both nodded.

"Cool" She sat down and giggled. She couldn't wait to see the reactions of all the military people to all the demons and stuff, but she was really looking forward to telling Giles that her dad was an alien.

Cassie walked over to Jack and Sam. "Hey guys, glad you get to be here for this."

Jack looked at her. "And what does all of this have to do with you?"

"You'll see."

Vi was kissing her husband hello when Teal'c, Daniel, Vala and Cameron entered the crowded room with very curious looks on their faces.

General Landry stood and nearly yelled. "Alright, we are all here. Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!"

* * *

AN: On SG, Jacob is dead. This was pointed out by a review elsewhere and I'm telling you what I told them. I blocked that out as a traumatic experience, and refuse to acknowledge it. Make of that what you will.


	29. Connections: 4

**Chapter 29  
**

_The following is told from General Landry's POV._

* * *

The whole group was gathered around the conference table and Introductions were begun.

Landry just sat there as the strangers went first. He really hated being outside of the loop. Things were happening that would affect his people and he wanted to be on top of it. These people seemed to be a unit for the most part. Even a few of his own people were a part of it. That in itself was practically untenable. He trusted Jon O'Neill just as much as he did Jack. He shouldn't be a part of some clandestine group. And Dr. Summers was a very well respected addition to the SGC. He had a gruffness about him, and a sarcasm, that was outside of the norm for his field, but he fit in well with the soldiers and up until today had never indicated divided loyalties.

"I'm Rupert Giles, Chairman of the Watchers Council." This was the older man with glasses. He was obviously the leader of the group even without the title. They all waited for him to begin, and then for him to indicate that they could proceed.

Andrew Wells, Head of Disposition at the Watchers Council" The young protector. He was short, with blonde hair and a careless manner of dress. One of those geeky kids that tended toward the nervous side. He was definitely uncomfortable with the attention of the whole group. Mr. Giles smiled his approval, this was obviously important to the boy. The General wondered what "disposition" meant, but he didn't ask, hoping to just get through this part and move on.

"Gwen Holland, Mr. Giles' personal assistant." Average, tweedy stuffy British woman. Older than the majority of the group, who were in their 20's and 30's, but no older than the group on his side of the table.

"Willow Rosenberg, witch, Watcher, and leader of the Magical Troubleshooting Team for The Watchers Council" OOOOKKKKKK, so they were nuts? Although it was hard to convince himself of that entirely after seeing their modes of transportation. But still, witches and magic? Superior transporter tech sounded better to him.

"Jenny Summers, Slayer." This girl was all of 16. None of this made any sense. She was the one who Mr. Giles had indicated as belonging to Dawn. He vaguely remembered SG-1 talking about an incident involving Jonas' girlfriend and her adopted teenage daughter, so that meant that Dawn was the girlfriend. Them being family made a bit more sense he supposed, but slayer? What was that?

"Violet Summers, Slayer." This was Dr. Summers' wife. He had met her before. He also knew that they had a cousin in town, so that connected them. Again though, slayer?

"Josie Parish, Slayer and member of the MTT." "Michael Logan, member of the MTT." "Maria Logan, witch and member of the MTT" These three were part of the incident. The young blond girl was just that, young. This "slayer" thing must be some kind of title or something within the group. Witch might be more of a title too for that matter. Hmm. Interesting group none the less. The others were obviously a couple and they were very uncomfortable around the military group, The way the man held himself was just too defensive, and Maria was gripping his arm like she was nearly terrified.

"Cassie Frasier, but you all know me. Oh, yeah, I'm an alien for those who didn't know that." Well, that was interesting. Nearly the entire group of strangers looked completely shocked, while all of the military group were unfazed.

"Lieutenant Jon O'Neill. I'm a Clone of that old guy over there." Again with the shock on the wrong side of the room. Oh, this was starting to be a bit fun. He almost smirked.

"Jonas Quinn, AJ's dad and also an alien." Now THAT had a big reaction. There was a huge corus of "What?" and "Excuse Me?" before Mr. Giles shushed them and mumbled something and taking off his glasses to clean them. Jenny cleared her throat loudly and he hastily added, "Jenny's dad too."

"Dawn Summers, AJ's and Jenny's mom, Watcher, and portal maker." The woman glared at those in her group who were still murmuring about Jonas' revelation. She was one of the few that hadn't reacted at all to the status of Jonas, Jon and Cassie. That group was a family unit. They knew each other's secrets and kept them.

"Ava Johnson, Dawn's assistant and alien hybrid." This really got Sam's attention. She was already all ears and waiting, but now she had something to really latch on to. Hell even Vala was starting to look mildly interested in the whole situation.

Oh, my turn. Vala Mal'Doran, alien." She smiled brightly and General Landry struggled not to roll his eyes at her. Just had to put herself out there. There was really no reason for her to reveal something like that.

"Teal'c. I am Jaffa." At least he could understand Teal'c's reasoning. He operated under a code of honor and respect. If these strangers were willing to reveal themselves, then he would show good faith by reciprocating.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson. Hybrid?" This almost made Landry laugh. Daniel's curiosity was getting the better of him. He was cut off by his coligue though.

"Colonel Cameron Mitchell."

"Dr. William Summers. They call me Spike. Part time Watcher and Archeologist." Part time watcher? Must have something to do with his wife. Everyone who had identified themselves as slayers had a watcher with them. There must be some kind of correlation there.

There were assorted snorts, sniffs and laughs from the WC group at that minimal description, there must be something that they weren't sharing. It may be important to find out later, but right now he didn't have time to dwell on it. The man had passed the background checks, so it wasn't anything that would be public knowledge anyway.

"Ok, I'll finish this up quickly since I have a lot of questions and I can tell some of you do as well. I'm Jack O'Neill, and I am not old. This is General Hank Landry and he's in charge around here. And next to me is my wife, Colonel Sam Carter O'Neill, she works out of DC for the International Oversight Authority." Took long enough. Landry had expected Jack to get antsy a lot sooner. Maybe being married to Sam was making him more patient. He saw Daniel smiling at his friend. He was itching to move on as well. Well hell, who wasn't?

"You're an alien?"

"How the hell could you just blurt something like that out? Are you nuts?"

"What do you mean by witch exactly?"

Ok, he had really had enough of this.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!" Everyone turned and stared at General Landry. "While all of this is very fascinating and all, can we please get to the reason we are all here. There was a breach of security here yesterday, perpetrated by Ms. Rosenberg and her team. They knew all about us and she is apparently one of those people who can't speak quietly into a cell phone because we got her first name as well as Jonas' from the contents of the phone call she made. Somebody please explain this." He waited while they looked to Mr. Giles who seemed to indicate that Willow should start things out.

Willow stood up. "Ok, I'll tell you exactly what happened and then Giles and Dawn will fill in the background information. Yesterday my team tracked a magical energy signature. There were, and still are, a large number of these signatures coming from DC, but we couldn't pinpoint on of them there because there were too many all together and they are kinda all washing together. We found a single one that matched the group in South Carolina and decided to go see what it was so that we would be able to deal with the bigger threat. When we got there we found that the magic was coming from a Cregnar demon. These guys use a sort of mind control magic on a target and control their actions either subtly or overtly. This demon was just starting his spell, so he hadn't got control of the guy yet, but he wasn't alone or with one of his own kind like they usually are. His helper in the ritual was that guy I dropped here. At first I thought he was human, but then he started spouting off in his weird voice about "I am your god" and stuff and I remembered what I had been told about those snake things, so I brought him here since that's your area. They were outside of the home of Senator Martin and using his picture as a focus for the spell. He was the target. Put that together with where the others are…… not good." She waved a hand and folders appeared in front of everyone. The file contained pictures of the demons, stats on their abilities and how they were killed, along with a picture of the Senator that had been targeted and a map of DC showing 4 large areas covered in purple. He was slightly impressed, they obviously were used to dealing with briefings of some kind and she was prepared to prove her case. The fact that he was being so calm in the face of the idea of demons was more due to him thinking that it was probably aliens instead. He just couldn't buy demons as real, although the pictures were certainly on the out there side.

"We can't pinpoint the casters at all. There are too many and they could be anywhere in the indicated areas, those are the big magical hot spots. Could be the victims, could be the demons, or both. We need to scout it out in person, and we need a large group to do it. More than we can really spare from our end. And I'm really sorry about dragging Jonas into this. He didn't tell me about you guys. He never said a word about them until we already knew. And I've read the NDA that he signed and it never says he can't talk about it with people who already knew."

"And who did tell you about it." He had a hunch.

Dawn raised her hand. "I did, but Jonas didn't tell me either." Ok, not what he was expecting. Also not actually helpful.

"Who did?" A straight answer wouldn't kill them

Cassie spoke up. "I did." That's what he thought. There was simply no other reason for her presence here. She had nothing to add and wasn't a part of this 'Council' of theirs. That meant she was connected some other way and this was the only thing he could think of. Also, if he remembered correctly, there wasn't much paperwork on her after her adoption outside of medical records. There was a good possibility that she had never signed an agreement, especially since it had already been mentioned. They knew about it, and what it said. It was also comforting since he knew her exposure to the project had been extremely limited even before her mother's death. Frankly, if someone was going to tell, she was the one he preferred.

Jack, Sam and Daniel all yelled "What!" while Teal'c raised an eyebrow at her. The General just nodded at her reassuringly. He didn't want to make a major issue out of it right now, but he would definitely be getting her to sign as soon as he could find a copy of the papers.

"What? I never signed anything. Besides at the time they really needed to know. It's not like I just go around blabbing to everyone I meet." She relaxed a bit when she saw his expression. She had probably been ready for a fight.

Cameron piped in. "And why did they need to know?"

This is where Dawn stood and took over the story. She seemed uncomfortable, but not nervous about speaking. There was something in the story itself that bothered her. "About 2 years ago Spike showed up on the doorstep of the Slayer's Rest. It's a private retreat that I run for the WC. He had gotten his ass handed to him and told us the story of how. There was this group of demons all heading to Colorado Springs to follow this woman calling herself Persephone. Spike thought she was a witch. She spoke with the weird timbered voice and had glowing eyes and used what he thought was an energy spell to knock him around. She was going to lead a demon assault on the base to get to the Stargate. She told them it was a big portal leading to a demon paradise. When Jon, Jonas and Cassie heard the story they knew what she was. They had been having movie night with Jenny, Robyn (another slayer who used to live with us) and I when he showed up. We explained the demons and what we do to them and Cassie decided to tell us the bare basics of the SGC and the alien threat. They told the whole story of who they were to us, but we kept it from the Council for a couple of reasons. First, it wasn't important to what we needed to do, and second because my family is a little overprotective of me and I didn't want them going after Jonas or anything. Especially since I had found out I was pregnant that same day.

Anyway, info was exchanged; we called in Vi and some others for backup and took care of it. We got intel on the group, got the bitch alone and grabbed her. Using her as bait, we gathered her little army together, trapped them and killed them all. We interrogated Ugly Witch Bitch to see if she knew anything that would help you, she didn't so we were going to call Willow and have her try to remove the parasite and save the host. She got out and tried to attack me and I shot and killed her."

Dawn's voice had started to shake near the end and when she finished she sat back down and rested her head on Jonas' shoulder. This had to have been traumatic, but the idea that they had hidden such a threat from them, and him, had him nearly fuming.

"They were planning an attack on us and you didn't think we should know?"

Mr. Giles answered that. "There was some previous bad experience with the military knowing about what we do. They decided that doing experiments on demons and creating their own super soldier with parts of demons, humans and technology was a good idea. It didn't work out well for anyone and almost everyone involved was killed by their creation. We cleaned it up, but it made us reluctant to deal with the government. They assure me that they would have contacted you if Persephone had known anything helpful or you needed warning of the planned attack." Landry knew that there were untrustworthy groups in the US government. He had seen the work of the Trust and the NID and had a hard time blaming them for their caution. He could also see Jon not wanting to reveal anything to any part of the government that might get back to those groups and put people in danger. He saw Jack's face an knew that he wasn't going to question that part of the story.

"You weren't there? I thought you were in charge." Jack said. That was actually….a really good question. Good work Jack.

"Overall yes. However, Colorado Springs is Dawn's territory and she has the right to deal with the demons she runs into here as she sees fit. She did call me the next day and fill the board of the Council in on what happened." The general power structure was starting to come into focus now.

Daniel spoke up now. "Can someone tell us about this witch, portal, demon thing now before Sam explodes?"

They all looked over at Sam, who was looking like she was about to bubble over with questions, but trying to hide it.

Landry nodded and Giles began the Slayer story. He spoke of demons and shadowmen and girls destined for war and death. He told of thousands of years of battle, of the Watchers and what their role had become. He told the story of a young woman who fought and died and returned more than once to continue her never ending battle. He told of the last battle of Sunnydale and how it had been destroyed ten years earlier. It was a story of great evils and great courage. He obviously left things out, you could see it in the faces of those who had been there, but frankly Landry didn't want to know any more of the horrors than he already did. Then he started talking about who the Watchers Council now was and what they did, and about Dawn's ability to open portals. "She has a special Mystical element to her blood that gives her that ability. There is nothing physiologically different from her sister, or anyone else, just a magical property. Her son doesn't even have that, but he does have some power that we don't understand yet, as you've seen him demonstrate. As for Ava's revelation, I honestly have no idea what she's talking about I thought she was a witch, as did everyone else."

The General looked to the girl and motioned for her to tell them her story.

Ava smiled slightly. "Yeah, well, many years ago on a planet called Antar there was a coup and the king, queen, the king's second in command and his betrothed, who was the king's sister, were killed. The king's mother was heartbroken and took the genetics from the royal four and spliced it with human DNA. She created hybrids and sent them to earth so that they might live again. She created 2 sets, one with the memories of their past selves and one without. The group crashed in Roswell in 1947. The protector of the children managed to escape custody with them and place them in stasis for over 40 years. The sets of children were separated and one was left in Roswell while the other, the one with the memories who were thought to be the inferior, ended up in New York. I was one of those. When we exited stasis we were confuse and scared and bombarded with all of these memories. My family, Rath, Zan, and Valondra, we were really messed up. Especially Loni and Rath. She had apparently betrayed us in our previous life and planned to do it again. Rath had a lot of anger, and she was able to manipulate him. They killed Zan and threatened me." She broke off and took a breath

"There were some people from our home around trying to get to us. I'm still hiding from them. We met up with our copies and found out that the government wanted them and that my copy was not a good person. Michael and Maria knew her, that's why he acted the way he did when he saw me. She did some terrible things. She killed one of their friends and hurt some people. Apparently she is dead though if I heard him right. Anyway, I got away from everyone and kept running. As far as I know Rath and Loni are dead. I came into town about 6 months ago and got a job working with Dawn. She, Jonas, Jenny, and Andrew are the only ones I told about who I really was. Everyone else we told I was a witch like Willow and the others."

That was interesting. Again a distrust of the government. That explained the defensiveness and fear from the Logan couple. They knew about this and were probably more involved than Ava had said. OK, so trust was going to be an issue here. Considering what brought them here he could relate.

Mr. Giles cleared his throat. "Thank you my dear. Now that we are all clear on the important things. I think we need a plan to deal with the situation in Washington DC. General, what did you find out from your prisoner?"

Landry was quiet for a moment as he considered whether he should work with this group or try to handle it internally. They knew nothing about demons in general; much less these specific ones and they could use the help of whoever they could trust at this point. It seemed these people were well equipped for this kind of work and they definitely had experience keeping secrets. For now trust was a good tactical decision. "Not much. Just that he works with a covert group called the Trust and that he is working with other go'auld here on earth. What exactly do you think they are trying to do?"

Willow answered. "We think they are using the Cregnars to control key players in government. From the way the signatures are varied a bit I'd say they are outright controlling a few while subtly nudging others. Like making them distrust certain people or trust others, things like that. If I were you I'd watch my back. They have a vested interest in the SGC from what I know and they might target you or just use those they already control to mess with things." This was disturbing. He could be target either directly or they could have victims that could interfere without needing to do that. He couldn't ask permission to proceed from his superiors and he couldn't really trust himself to deal with it either. In fact the less he knew about the whole thing the better. At least until it was over.

Mitchell spoke next. "I wouldn't tell the higher ups about this sir. It might get back to either the controllers or the controlees and they could lash out."

He nodded. "I agree. So, here's what I'm going to do. SG-1, you are officially on an extended leave. I don't want to see or hear from you for at least 2 months. Colonel O'Neill, I'm going to request you be based here at the SGC for a few months to work on some of our experiments. I'm sure your husband won't mind accompanying you. I hear there is a very nice inn just outside of town, and you know the owner. I believe the cost of temporary relocation is covered for you, according to your contract." He smiled at Sam's expression and Jack nodded approvingly.

"As for the security breach, we will deal with that when SG-1 returns from leave. If you'll excuse me I need a drink." With that he went to his office and spent the rest of the day in seclusion. He did paper work, he shuffled files and "lost" the information on the breach, he cleaned his office. He would know absolutely nothing about this whole thing.


	30. Connections: 5

**Chapter 30**

* * *

When The General was gone Jonas spoke up. "I think maybe we should continue this at our house. Dawn can you do your thing and I'll get everyone who entered through the front door?"

"Sure." Dawn got her things together and opened a portal to the lounge at the Rest and those that portaled in, portaled out.

"Ok" Jonas said as he kissed AJ's head and gave him to Jenny to carry out. "Let's go."

Jon stopped him as he was about to walk out the door behind most of the group. "It's because I was mean about Andrew right?"

"Yep."

* * *

As the SGC group and the girls entered Dawn and Jonas' house they heard Buffy and Xander getting updated on all that had happened and been revealed in the last couple of days.

"Jonas is a WHAT?"

"Relax Buffy, not really. Just technically."

"How does that work Dawn? Is his blood 'technically' green? Does he 'technically have a tail?"

"No. He's human; he was just born and raised on another planet where humans live. And you dated Angel and the Immortal and – " Dawn saw the group entering and cut herself off. "You have no business getting all judgmental all of the sudden."

"Buffy, baby, let it go."

Xander decided to change the topic and clapped his hands together. "Now that we're all here. What's the plan?"

Giles rubbed his forehead. "Who works the DC area Andrew?"

"Melissa. She lives there with her family and her Watcher Victoria."

"Alright, we'll get them here and then we can make a plan."

Dawn nodded. Victoria was the one who needed to be in charge of planning. "Anyone else?"

Andrew thought for a minute. "Don't think so. There was a group, but I think they all turned of age and the other 2 moved on."

Daniel had a questioning look on his face.

Jenny was the one to explain. "Most slayers under 18 are in groups of at least 2 and stay in major metropolitian areas where there are 2 or three groups. Until we moved here we lived in London with 3 other slayer groups and their watchers. Plus there are a bunch of girls that still aren't trained yet. You have to train for at least 2 years before you're allowed to patrol."

"Do things just stay mostly in the big cities then?"

Buffy answered this. "Not exactly. There are demons and vampires all over, but they generally stay to highly populated areas because they blend in better and they can pick people off better. We don't have enough people for one in every single town everywhere. The girls are still mostly kids and have school and things like that to deal with. We do have some girls on the road though. It's strictly volunteer. Girls that do that get a map of a large area and do random road trips. They go out once a month to 10 towns and clears them out as best they can in 2 nights. Then they get above a week off. This works pretty well because demons and vampires move around a lot. If the girls want to settle in one place and to regular patrolling, they either get a group of 3 and a Watcher together and pick a city with over a certain population density or they go to the Hellmouth in Cleveland and join the large group there."

"So how is it that Dawn and her Slayers live here?" asked Vala. "This is not a high population area and Jenny is clearly underage. Not to mention that I know there was another girl living with them before."

"Retirement." Said Spike.

"No.' Dawn said as she whacked him on the back of the head. "I wanted to get away from the Council and have a life of my own. I came up with the idea of the retreat where the Slayers could get away from demons and picked a place with virtually no activity. Demons don't really like the military these days and your base gives off energy that most of them can't handle for a long period of time. It's the perfect place for a couple of Slayers to live pretty normal lives with minimal patrolling. I was already Jenny's legal guardian and Robyn, my other Slayer at the time, wanted to come too. She went off to college this year. Vi came here to retire from running the Hellmouth group. They came in for the invasion and she and Spike decided to settle here so she could have a normal life too.

Jack was slightly incredulous. "This is quiet retirement for you people?"

There was a collection snorts and giggles. Buffy said, "Pretty much."

Dawn stood. "Anyway, I'll call Vicky and Mel and see when they can get here. Andrew, can you call in the reserves?"

"Sure, I'll ask Connor to come too. Laura can be our medic."

"Cool." She looked around for Ava and saw her having a heated discussion with Michael and Maria. She sighed, She would have to ask her about watching some more kids later. Maybe she could draft Cassie to help with that. She went to her office to make the call

* * *

In the corner Ava and Michael were arguing about her revelation of the hybrids' existence to the military.

"You said yourself that there were government people after you, so it's not exactly that much of a secret. It doesn't make any difference if this particular group knows about me. I didn't tell them about you, all they know is that there is someone out there somewhere, which wouldn't really surprise them since this whole thing is about aliens loose on earth. And, In case you haven't noticed, there are a couple of aliens working for them, and a couple just living their lives. They aren't going to experiment on me. Maybe they can protect me from the ones who would. After all they are in charge of the alien stuff."

"She's right Michael." Maria placed a hand on his arm. "If telling them about her goes ok, then we can see if they can help the rest of us. And if it doesn't…. not our problem. Just leave it."

"Fine, but we are not exposing ourselves bailing you out."

"Understood. Besides, I think I have enough people to do that already."

After a quiet moment Michael just looked at her oddly. "Andrew? Really? Why?"

Ava bristled. "He likes me; I don't have to lie about who I am or what I can do with him. I told him I was an alien and he thought it was cool. He thinks my powers are cool. He thinks I'M cool."

Maria smiled. "Good, I was a bit worried that you hadn't told him until today. That could have been awkward."

"No. I told him when he asked me out. I figured if nothing else, no one would believe him if he did tell everyone. So, where are the rest of you? Nothing happened did it? And how is Maria a witch all of the sudden?"

Michael leaned comfortably against the wall. "We all ran after the government guys attacked our graduation. Isabel had to leave her husband behind, it was bad. After a couple of years of just running from place to place we wound up in Cleveland."

Ava winced. "Not a good place to hang out."

Maria nodded. "Yeah, well, we didn't know that. We were there for about a month. We were raising some cash to try and cross the border. I was out getting some groceries with Liz when a couple of guys grabbed me out of the frozen food aisle and hauled ass out of there. By the time they found me these guys had started a ritual. They used me as a vessel and siphoned of a bunch of magical power each into me. They were going to sacrifice me on the Hellmouth. Luckily I was rescued and they were killed before they could do that. I couldn't get rid of the magic though. I was practically glowing with it. A few weeks later Michael and I were arguing outside a restaurant in Nebraska somewhere and this guy hands Michael Dawn's address and tells us to come here and ask for help. She called Willow and here we are."

"Where are the others?"

Maria looked around before answering. "Liz and Kyle got some powers from Max saving them from dying. One of Liz's powers is premonition, that's how they found me. Anyway passed the whole group of them off as witches with specific powers. I guess you did the same. Anyway, Liz and Max went back to Cleveland. They had already gotten married and she was pregnant so they wanted to settle as much as possible. Government guys stay away from the Hellmouth now kind of like demons stay away from the military. They still use aliases, but they haven't had so much as a peep from anyone. Isabel is working as a witch with a slayer group in Cardiff, Wales, and Kyle is doing a stint in South America at the moment. He usually lives in Australia with Buffy and Xander's group though."

"Well, what about Skins and the others?"

Michael shrugged. "Nothing from any of them for like 3 years. We haven't been in touch with anyone in Roswell since we left though. Well, except for Izzy getting Giles to run a divorce through for her about 8 months ago."

Ava frowned slightly. It sucked not being able to go home again. If you really had one. "Oh, I suppose that was the right thing to do."

Michael smiled. "Well considering we were against her getting married in the first place, can't say I cried over it."

Maria smacked him. "Be nice. They could have been really happy if she had been able to stay. Besides, she only did it because it was time to move on, and she found a way to do it without exposing us. She did it for him, so he could move on."

* * *

After about an hour Dawn returned with the news that Vicky and Melissa would be arriving in two days. Andrew had contacted the reserves and there would be an influx of slayers, watchers and witches within the week, including all of the Cardiff group, all of the Melbourne group, and a chunk of the Cleveland group.

He looked pensive for a second and added. "Connor and Laura are coming too. He said he was going to call Angel in New York and get him to go directly to DC."

Buffy got an odd look on her face, but nodded. They knew she was not looking forward to working with him again. Even though he had given up following her she didn't trust him to be clear headed when she and Xander were around. Not to mention the fact that he still hadn't been told about Spike's new found humanity. This would not be fun. She shook it off and stood looking at the room.

"Ok, Dawn and Jonas are in charge of the living arrangements for those of us who don't live here. I say we have some dinner and relax. We can't plan anything without the Watcher in charge so that gives us time to get to know each other. Dawn do you and Jonas have a plan for us yet or do you need time?"

Dawn looked to Jonas who looked to Cassie. She smiled and responded. "I have an empty suite on the 3rd floor and its clear for at least a couple of months if Sam and Jack want it. Plus I can promise 4 other rooms for the duration since it's almost summer."

Dawn nodded. "Ok that's good. I think everyone should just grab a room here for now. We're empty cause it's apocalypse season so no big. I'm gonna cancel the reservations we have for the rest of the summer so we can use it for all the planning and stuff. Cassie and Andrew will make up a list of who's going to be staying and then Jonas and I will make everyone fit. There is going to be some sharing for the single people, but I think we can manage. The only thing I'm worried about is the kids. There is AJ and Liam and Diana and Alex, did I miss any Andrew?"

He looked over the lists of who was in each group that was coming and shook his head. "Not unless someone gives birth while they're here."

Everyone laughed and Dawn asked, "Anything else?"

Vi spoke quietly with Spike for a moment before he spoke up. "Slayer, you and the Whelp can stay with us at the cottage if you want. If you think you can put up with me anyway."

Xander surprised everyone who knew him by saying, "Thanks man, should be interesting." He got a lot of blank and dumbfounded stares. "What? We get along fine now. I have matured some."

Buffy kissed him fiercely. "You're sexy when you act like a grown up."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Anyone else?"

Jon raised a hand. "I'll donate my apartment to one of the families"

Jack piped in. "Give the suite to the other one. We really don't need it."

Jonas looked relieved. "Thanks guys."

Jack shrugged. "No problem, where is this food someone mentioned."


	31. Connections: 6

**Chapter 31**

**AN:** I am dropping in some stuff here that may seem extraneous. Truth is, I hated the way the Adria storyline was ended on Stargate. I know that they had to rush an ending due to the cancelation of the show, but it still irked. So, I gave her a better ending. I think so anyway. BTW, they ended it with her ascending and floating off as the lone Ori left since they had killed the others. This doesn't take Arc of Truth into account since it was written before that came out.

* * *

Two days later there was another shocking revelation for the Stargte team. Victoria James and her slayer Melissa Ryan arrived. This at first wasn't all that shocking since they were expected. The shocking part was the reaction that most of the Stargate group had when they saw her.

Victoria James was a 34 year old American woman with dark hair and eyes and bronzed skin. She was the picture of poise and beauty. She had come to the Watcher's Council just after Dawn left. Well she didn't so much come to them as they found her.

A group of girls was training in the woods outside Leeds when they came upon a naked unconscious woman. They bundled her up and took her back to town. She woke up on the way and they found that she had no memory at all. They debated whether they should take her to the local hospital or authorities, but one of the slayers had had a dream with her in it. She said that the woman was meant to be a watcher, that she had been told that she was meant to atone for an "egregious act of arrogance" and that she could do great things if given the proper motivation. That slayer had been Melissa, and she had made it her mission to do just that. They got along from the very start. They both had an abrasiveness at times and they found that they complemented each other's strengths and weaknesses.

The problem was that Victoria was the Orici. Adria had made quite a stink when she had ascended. Not contented to return to her home galaxy and revel in the worship she found there, she had ventured almose immediately to a planet in the Milky Way that was protected by one of the Ancients. She tried to sway the people to worship her and went as far as to appear in public spaces and demonstrate her power. The Ancients, while unwilling to battle the Ori en mass, were just irritated enough to exercise a bit of vengeful justice and drop her somewhere where she would be one of many in a fight against those just as egocentric as she had been.

Vala was so shocked that she nearly fainted. They were told that Victoria had no idea who she used to be and, after a bit of a debate between Vala and Daniel, they left it alone. They weren't comfortable around her, but they kept their mouths shut. The fact that she was basically in charge of the mission caused a bit of a problem, but after a day or two it became obvious that Victoria was really nothing like Adria had been and even though she could be a bitch sometimes, she knew what she was doing and genuinely believed in the cause.

* * *

"Ok, so now that we are all here we can begin planning this thing."

Everyone was sitting around a fire pit that Jack and Jonas had built for this purpose. There really wasn't one room in the Rest that was big enough to seat the whole group comfortably, so it was the perfect solution.

SG-1 and its former members were mostly watching the proceedings curiously. They hadn't, as a group, really believed in the demons and slayers and magic when it had been presented to them. They had been prepared to see some bizarre interpretation of aliens and alien technology. Jack was really the only one who had really given it some serious consideration. He had seen vampires before. He had encountered a nest of them on a black ops mission in '85 near Berlin. It was something that stuck with him He had only seen them from a distance, but he came away feeling lucky to have survived when others on his team had not.

Jack knew things like this were possible. Also he had the advantage of remembering that Jon and Jonas were not stupid. If an alien and practically himself had been living and working with this group for 3 years then there had to be something to it. No way they wouldn't have noticed tech when they saw it. Of course Jonas could just be humoring his girlfriend, but Jack doubted that such an honest person would do such a thing.

He had been the one to talk Sam down when she had SEEN a demon for the first time. They had been using the gym in the basement there when Melissa and Victoria (and wasn't that a kick in the ass) had come strolling down the stairs in conversation with a grossly floppy skinned creature who was protesting his innocence over a cat who had disappeared along with her litter from the house of one of the Slayer groups in Cleveland. He was Clem, who had come down with the reinforcements from the Hellmouth. Melissa was patting him on the shoulder in a soothing manner and Victoria had just rolled her eyes at the emotionally needy demon and continued on. This in itself may not have convinced his wife, but in conjunction with the amounts of magic that went on with that many witches in one place had done it. Especially after she had gotten Willow to agree to medical testing to prove she was human, and other tests to prove that she wasn't using any kind of tech.

She had been the one to convince the rest. He didn't know exactly what she had said, though she had probably told them about his personal encounter with vampires. He had told her about it after the run in with Clem to try and calm her. It hadn't helped, but it might have made her a smidgen less skeptical.

The slayers totally refused any kind of testing to prove themselves though. The most they got was a demonstration of their powers to prove they existed. Buffy had explained that while Willow was 100 percent average physically and there was nothing to find, they weren't so sure about the slayers, and they didn't want to find out. If there was something to find, they didn't want it found. Jack respected that. After dealing with an experiment gone wrong, they didn't want to contribute anything to another one. He trusted the SGC, but there had been infiltrations and there would be more.

It had taken a couple of days for the information to really sink in once they had actually believed it. It was overwhelming to know that even if they saved the world from aliens, there was still a major threat. Cam had said it made the whole thing seem somewhat pointless.

Dealing with Ava had been another matter entirely. Aliens they did believe in, and she had powers. She demonstrated her mind warp once and it scared the hell out of them. What she could do to the world with a little effort if she set her mind to it was terrifying. His first gut reaction had been to drag her to the base and toss her through the stargate onto some uninhabited world. But she was a genuinely nice person. She had been through a lot in this life and the last. She saw the man she loved die, twice, and was betrayed by those closest to her, but she seemed to have come through it with strength instead of bitterness. She had odd taste in men though. Andrew was just….. Andrew.

And then there was the whole Adria/Victoria thing. He hadn't really interacted much with Adria, but he knew it had to be hard to deal with, especially for Vala and Daniel. They had suffered the most by her hand and Vala was her mother. She had taken it the best really. She seemed almost happy that her daughter got a chance at a new, better, life. Daniel followed her lead and went with it. He knew what it was to be dropped on your ass with no clothes and no memories and she seemed to be dealing with it better than he had. They worried that her memory might return, but she was only human now, so there wasn't much she could do even if it did. They did tell Giles about her past, just in case.

Thus six rather shell shocked individuals sat and just watched as a battle plan was drawn up by teenage girls and some witches.

* * *

After about 2 hours of Victoria and Buffy sniping at each other over who did what and went where, a plan was finalized.

Connor would go to DC to "work a case" with Kyle and Mitchell along as his "team". They would have a witch portal into their hotel suite for an hour every day and try to use magic to narrow down the search for the lair of the demons. The guys would work with Angel and do the recon. Most of the others would go home and go about their business until they had a target. Teal'c, Josie, Jenny, and Vi would train and patrol the city. Daniel volunteered to help Giles with translations in London and Vala, obviously, insisted that she go with them. Daniel hadn't even hesitated to agree and his friends smirked at him. Jack and Sam stayed at Slayer's Rest and Sam went to work at the SGC to maintain their cover for being there. Jon and Spike continued with their regular schedules as well. Willow's whole team, along with Michael and Maria's friends stayed along with Connor's wife and their two children. She was a student at UCLA and had finished her classes before they arrived. She also didn't feel comfortable at home alone for an extended period of time. They stayed in Jon's apartment and Max and Liz stayed in the suite with their son.

It was rather cozy really. Andrew stayed in town and did the cooking for the group since he had lots of experience at cooking for groups and Dawn brought on Lara's daughter Carol and her son Paul, who was still dating Jenny, on as full time housekeeping staff for the summer and got Vi and her partner at the laundry to give them a discount for more regular patronage.

Things pretty much rolled along for about a month. Andrew and Ava had had a fight near the beginning that had led to them moving in to her room together instead of breaking up like everyone expected. Maria and Michael had their customary, and highly entertaining arguments, but things were otherwise calm.


	32. Connections: 7

**Chapter 32: Jack**

* * *

Jack had been here for 3 weeks.

At first it had been fascinating. Being in a place filled with people who were basically superheroes had been kind of exciting. Seeing how they went about their everyday lives just a little bit differently than everyone else. Seeing the slayers in action. Hell seeing Teal'c train with a 16 year old girl had been a highlight. Seeing Dawn sit in her office and open portals as part of her schedule had been weird. Watching AJ and Alex giggling as they moved toys around the family room with their minds had given him a bit of a headache. The comings and goings, the hours they kept, all of it had been pretty neat. For a few days.

He got bored after a week and a half. It had been 3 days since the plans had been made and everyone went their own ways and Jack was wondering why he was here.

Why wasn't he in DC? He lived there. He didn't have to have an excuse or a cover story. Ok, so maybe he wouldn't be able to interact with Mitchell and the others because he was to high profile there and it would blow their cover. And, maybe, Sam really wanted to stay and do some science stuff at the base along with learning as much as she could about the supernatural world. And, just maybe, he was a possible target for these guys due to his continued influence with the government and the SGC. Damn It!

Jack sighed and tossed the book he was reading on the couch next to the chase lounge he was sitting on in the main parlor of Slayer's Rest. He had borrowed it from Jenny the day before, hoping he never got desperate enough to actually read it. It was an alright book, if you liked to read, but he just didn't have the patience for "Hogfather" today. Although he was certainly impressed with it. Of course Andrew had nearly driven him crazy with his theories on how Terry Pratchett had been influenced by the pop culture phenomenon that is "Doctor Who". And he wasn't about to admit that he actually agreed with the little geek.

The sound of children laughing pulled Jack out of his little pity party. He looked out of the front window to see Ava running with a pack of giggling children in the front yard. The children's mothers were nowhere to be seen, but Andrew was sitting in the grass and grabbing at them as they ran around him in circles. They weren't moving fast, or steadily, since 2 of them could barely walk, but they were having a blast.

It reminded Jack of the way he and Sarah used to play with Charlie. It still choked him up a bit remembering his son, but the time had lessened the hard ache in chest. He and Sam had decided that they were just to old to have a baby when they finally got married, but they were preparing to adopt a slightly older child. He had resisted at first, but right now he couldn't think of anything else. When all of this was over he was going to devote all that spare retired time to getting the ball rolling.

This brought up another annoying fact. He had been bored long before coming here. Truth was, this trip had been Sam's solution to 6 months of whining about needing something to do. She had hoped to talk Landry into bringing the pair of them back to the base.

In the 2 years since she had returned from Atlantis, Sam had worked tirelessly with the IOA to keep both the SGC and the Atlantis base in their good books. She spent long hours in negotiations and briefings, and none in a lab. Jack wasn't surprised that she was ready to jump back a step or two. Of course he supported that whole heartedly.

He hadn't really wanted to retire. Most people assumed that he had retired so he could be with Sam. It was a pretty logical guess considering that he had married her less than a week after he filed the paperwork, but it wasn't true. He had retired 22 months ago because he was useless. The job he was doing at the pentagon was just glorified busy work. It was a token gesture for a hero who couldn't be publicly recognized. He just couldn't deal with that anymore.

Hell, he had been in that particular job for over a year. Frankly he was surprised he'd lasted that long. And he and Sam had been together for nearly 3 years before they got married. It had taken him exactly 1 month from the day he handed command of the SGC over to Hank Landry to get the chain of command reconfigured so that he wasn't over her. It had taken about 10 minutes after that to ask her out, and most of that time was spent getting the "hey, how are you" part of the phone call out of the way.

The first year of his retirement had been great. He had gone on a nice month long honeymoon with his lovely wife, he had gone fishing every day for 4 months, winning for Daniel the bet on how long that would last, he had watched every episode of Clone Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Red Dwarf, The Dresden Files, and (not that he was going to get into it with Andrew, ever) Doctor Who (the lost episodes and ones not yet released excluded). He watched every movie that Teal'c recommended, and sent back some of his own. Jack watched so much hockey he got sick of it.

Now he just wanted to be useful again.

Jack sighed and looked back out at the kids. They were all laying in the thick grass under a huge shade tree with the two adults. The wind was picking up and the sky was darkening into rain clouds. They were going to need help gathering all the kids toys and the kids themselves or they were all going to get wet.

Jack smiled slightly. Time to be useful.

* * *

AN: I own none of the shows mentioned above, and I don't own Hogfather or any other book in the Discworld universe. I do have copies of a lot of those shows and the book though. Their very good and I recommend them all. Also the bit about the similarities in Hogfather and Doctor Who is something I noticed while watching Hogfather yesterday and reading The Colour of Magic the other night.


	33. Connections: 8

**Chapter 33**

* * *

About a month into "Operation kill Grimace" as Jenny had dubbed it, 4 women on 3 continents found out they were pregnant. Only 2 of them were really that much of a surprise. Of course because 3 of the mothers to be were part of the originally planned fighting group there had to be a meeting between the top members of the team.

That was why Buffy, Xander, Giles, Victoria, Andrew, Jon, Spike, Dawn and Jack were having a chat n the lounge of the Inn, away from most of others.

"This is weird."

Jon just looked at Xander like he was a moron. "Duh. But to be honest I kinda saw it coming."

"How's that?" Dawn asked. "Cause it shocked the hell out of me."

"Andrew."

"Andrew?" Buffy frowned, not understanding.

"He just had to make a joke about the number of kids when we were getting everyone together. Although since nobody is THAT pregnant, I guess we were still right."

Andrew had a contemplative look on his face, but didn't answer.

Jack waved them off and asked, "So how does this change things exactly? We're down a couple of slayers and a alien fighter. Who is gonna replace 'em?"

Buffy thought for a moment and then said. "I'll call Faith. She's the only rough equivalent for my skill. Rona might be willing to come and cover for Vi. If we can't get her then I'll call Kennedy. I really don't want her here though. She and Willow don't work well together at all and she has this thing with Vi ever since she started dating Spike years ago. I'm not the one to ask about Vala though."

Giles nodded and Andrew wrote a couple of notes. Spike answered. "I think that we can just trade one of the watchers in for her. Just need to train someone with the zats and what to expect from the snakes. Shouldn't be too hard since they're used to combat anyway."

Dawn nodded and added. "Ava can do her thing from a bit of a distance. She doesn't have to be closer than a block or so to the actual battle area. If we assign a couple of people to watch her back it shouldn't be a problem."

Victoria spoke up then. "I think that we should ask a few of the other field watchers, not Mr. Giles' London group. They haven't been in the thick of it as much."

Jack nodded his approval. "Now, how about someone explain the mass procreation to me. I'm having a hard time digesting that." He was actually a bit pissed about it too. Not just the timing of it, but the fact that they were getting what he wanted. Hell, he was jealous.

Buffy just rolled her eyes. "If you have to be all nosey – "

"I think I do."

"We were actually working under the 'whatever happens, happens' philosophy for the last 8 months or so." She shrugged and leaned against Xander. "We about as committed as we can be so…"

Dawn rolled her eyes back at her sister. "And you're the one who's been bugging me about not getting married yet."

"The difference is that you have that planned in your future, but are putting it off for some reason. We are perfectly happy as we are. Not to mention I really don't want a repeat of Xander's previous experience.

Dawn and Spike laughed at Xander's stricken expression, while most of the group had no idea what was so funny. Giles just shook his head at her.

"Well, me and Vi were TRYING to get pregnant. Don't know what the excuse for the others is. Especially Jackson. Mr. 'not gonna happen ever'. Apparently he doesn't have the will power everyone thought he did."

Xander was incredulous. "You did it on purpose?"

Spike smirked. "Timing wasn't great, but we are the only ones who are actually married. We're allowed. And I can't wait to see the look on Angel's face when he finds out what I've been up to the last couple years." Now he was smiling from ear to ear and Xander looked almost as happy.

Jack sighed. "Daniel was a bit shocked, but he took it well. Andrew was the one to pass out. I mean come on, you've been shacked up with the girl for like a month. What did you think that led to?"

Andrew's eyes darted around wildly. "Hey, Ava's the first girl that would sleep with me more than once. I know nothing about anything to do with women. And to be fair, she's more than a month pregnant. I think that's why she picked that fight with me in the first place."

Dawn was confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember you two being in the same country for more than half an hour before that trip to London when this all started."

Andrew blushed a bit. "I, um, came to town for my vacation a few months ago. We sort of got together then. She said she wanted it to be private, so I stayed at the inn. Cassie and Jon knew I was here."

Dawn looked at Jon. He shrugged. "None of my business that he was here. Didn't know he was here to see Ava though. Actually explains why she was here so much around that time actually. I just thought she was coming to see Cassie."

Giles cleared his throat and cleaned his glasses. "Well, now that I have much more information on my employees' sex lives than anyone should, I think we can end this meeting. Buffy and Andrew, make your calls. I'm going to have a drink and return to London."

* * *

Xander and Buffy were in their room in Melbourne a few nights later cuddling close when he asked., "Are you sure you don't mind? Us not getting married I mean. You're not just afraid I won't do it?"

She looked him in the eye and smiled. "I don't mind. You love me. I love you. We are going to be parents together. I have no doubt that, if I asked you to, you would marry me on the spot. I don't need that. I like things the way they are."

He smiled back at her. "I'm glad you're happy too. I'm also proud of you for stepping back from the fight."

She laid her head on his chest. "I'm not stupid. I finally have something that I never thought I'd get and I'm not risking it. Faith will fight just as hard as I would have. Besides, I'm going to be right there behind the line, being all watchery with Dawn and the others. Just because I'm not going to fight doesn't' mean I don't have your back. And you better be careful. I'm not gonna be all single parent person here."

He hugged her tight and they fell asleep, safe and happy.

* * *

Max, Liz, Maria, Michael, Isabel, and Ava were having a conversation of their own on the other side of the world.

"I'm a little worried about this." Ava was wringing her hands nervously. The whole idea of having a baby was scary to her, not to mention she had no idea how the pregnancy would go or if the baby would have powers or anything.

Liz reassured her. "Don't worry Ava. Your pregnancy sounds like it's the same as mine was. Tess's pregnancy was off from the start. It was really short and there were obvious issues. Even though Zan ended up being completely human, although we really only have her word for that and I have a hard time buying it, both parents were hybrids. I think your fine. If you're still worried you can go to Cleveland and see our doctor there. He's the one who took care of me and Alex and he knows the drill with hybrids and stuff. Actually, I'm pretty sure he thinks Max is a half demon. Either way, he will keep your secret and he is a really good doctor."

Ava relaxed considerably. She didn't know the exact details of Tess's life, but it had been mentioned recently that she had had a bizarre pregnancy back in Roswell, and it freaked Ava out.

Liz had had a lot of the same worries about her son. After all she had seen what happened with Tess, and both of Alex's parents were at least part alien. Her physiology had been altered when Max healed her to about ¼ alien. That was why she got the powers. It had taken time to happen and it had stopped there, but there you go. Kyle was the same, although he didn't have the same powers that she did. Luckily no one else that had been healed had the same problem. It may have been how close to death they had been that triggered the change, they didn't know, but Max had stopped healing people that way. He was afraid of what would happen if one of the slayers developed powers.

Ava sighed. At least now she and Andrew didn't have to worry about THAT. She was still extremely surprised that she was pregnant. Their relationship was still really new, and she didn't want to ruin it with added pressure. He had taken it pretty well, once he regained consciousness. She was pleased by that. She hadn't ever loved anyone but Zan in either of her lives. She had been unsure of herself when she met Andrew. She wanted to move on with her life, but she didn't know how to approach someone. It was a good thing that he was such a shy and bumbling person himself. They danced around each other every time they met. Called and talked about nothing. Then one day she had finally gotten up the courage to ask him to come to town to see her. Thankfully he had agreed easily. So he came, stayed at the inn and away from the others so they could figure things out without an audience, and they had had a great time. The first time they had sex was a bit awkward for both of them. He had admitted that he had only done it a couple of times and she had only ever slept with one person. But things had gone well. They were sad that they wouldn't get to see each other much, but they settled into a comfortable long distance relationship.

That was until the distance wasn't there anymore and they had to deal with their quirks in person for a while. The fight that had happened was stupid.

She and AJ had been taking a nap in her room. She hadn't been feeling well and stayed asleep even when he climbed off the bed and started banging on the laptop that Andrew had left on the floor underneath the edge. The thing hadn't been shut properly, so he pried it open and started banging away at the screen with the truck that he had slept with. It was a gift from his Uncle Xander, and he loved it.

When Jenny came in to check on them she found him there, with the screen busted all to hell. Andrew hadn't even been mad, or upset, at all. Ava was the one who went postal. She was tired and felt like hell, and his blasé attitude set her off. Why was his computer in her room anyway? He just kept leaving his crap around her room without even thinking about it. Why didn't he care that his carelessness had cost the Council money? Or that AJ could have been hurt?

She was completely irrational and none of her arguments had made a bit of sense. She was the one responsible for AJ, not Andrew. And honestly, the computer was going to be traded up soon anyway, so no real loss and she knew it. And he had left it there because she asked to borrow it to look up a few things the day before, because she spent most of the day in bed.

She yelled, and he even yelled back a bit because he was so surprised. After about 15 minutes he dragged her back to her room and laid down with her so she could calm down. She had been too tired to even talk loudly at him anymore and he wanted her to be ok. That touched her more than she could ever say. They settled for whispering their apologies. He was so sweet that night. He said it was all his fault for letting her get sick when he didn't. She melted. They decided that the only real solution was for all of his stuff to have a proper place in her room, and if they were going to do that, then they should just leave it all in those places, so they didn't forget. And with all of his stuff in there, he should stay too.

And now they were going to be parents. Of course there was a lot of that going around these days. "Anyone else think it's strange that 3 women have gotten pregnant so close together?" she asked.

Kyle just looked at her hard for a minute and burst into laughter. "You're contagious!"

Isobel smacked on the back of the head. "Real funny jackass."

He sobered slightly and shook his head. "I'm not kidding. Ever since I got here with Xander and the girls I've noticed this weird energy around her. I thought it was just a normal thing since I haven't seen her since before I got my powers, but just now I realized what it was. It's a hormone thing. She's exuding hormones."

Liz, Maria and Isobel stood quickly and backed away from her.

"Shit!"


	34. Connections: 9

**Disclaimer:** I don't own none of it.

**Chapter 34**

* * *

The exclamation itself wasn't shocking in the least. The idea that Ava was getting people pregnant just by being around them enough was really messed up. The shocking part was who it was coming from.

As one, the group tuned their heads and stared at Isobel.

Her brother was the first to speak again. "Is there something that you need to tell us Is?"

"No, well, not really. Ok, so maybe I've spent some time with someone recently. But I'm NOT pregnant. I mean…." Isobel got a panicked look on her face and started pacing back and forth.

That's the scene that Dawn and Jonas saw as they walked into the family room.

Dawn frowned and wrinkled her eyebrows. "What's wrong? Did we find out that there are more knocked up slayers?"

Kyle was still chuckling slightly at his revelation. "Not yet, but I would stay away from Ava unless you want to end up that way."

Isobel whirled on him. "This is not funny Kyle. We've been lucky so far. None of the parents are that bothered by surprise babies. What if someone that really doesn't want children gets hit by it. That could ruin people's lives, and their relationships. This is not a joke!"

Jonas put his hand on Isobel's shoulder and tried to rein her in. "Just calm down a minute and explain what's going on. If it makes you feel any better Dawn and I aren't worried about having another baby. Just tell us what the problem is so we can figure out how to fix it."

Kyle sat up straighter and looked at his friend. "I'm sorry Is. You're right, it's not funny." He then looked at Dawn and said. "Ava asked if anyone else thought it was weird that 3 women have gotten pregnant since she did. That made me think. I can read people. Not exactly auras, but things like diseases and anomalies. They kind of radiate from a person. Pregnancy is one of those things, but not until around the time it's starting to show anyway, so It's not really useful for that. I can see if someone is human or not too, so I use it a lot on patrol. Anyway, I've noticed an oddness to Ava that I really didn't think about very much. I haven't seen her since I got my powers, so I thought maybe it was something that had always been there or something. It wasn't an illness or anything so I ignored it. But when she asked I realized that she's been pregnant since before we got here and I looked a bit harder. If nothing else it might have shown if there was something off about the baby or something. It took me a few seconds, but I realized that it's a hormone thing. She is practically oozing it. I think that is the reason that everyone got pregnant all at once. I bet if you trace it Buffy got pregnant here, and Vi is here every day. That other woman, Vala, has been in London, but Ava and Andrew were there for a few days about 3 weeks ago."

Dawn thought for a second. "I don't know. Seems like that's cutting it pretty fine, timing wise. I mean, it usually takes longer than a couple of weeks to find out your pregnant, unless you're tracking it intentionally."

Ava smiled slightly. "Vi has been. She's about 6 weeks in I think."

Dawn nodded. "Buffy is about 5 weeks. That tracks to when she first arrived here after the big reveal."

Jonas snapped his fingers a few times. "Um, Daniel said that he and Vala were only together the once. They were very drunk and didn't use any protection at all. They found out the same day as the meeting because she was freaking out slightly and took 6 tests."

Ava sighed and slumped. "So anyone who's had sex without protection, that I'm around while I'm pregnant, is going to get pregnant too?"

Isobel took a relieved breath. "That's fine then. Ok, so we need to get a doctor to look at you or something. And keep anyone who can get pregnant, but doesn't want to, away from you until we figure it out. Birth control isn't a hundred percent and we don't want to chance it any more than necessary. So, I'm gonna go then. Back to Wales, I mean. Sorry, but if I'm lucky I'm not actually pregnant, I plan to keep it that way."

Liz frowned. "Isn't that a little extreme? I mean, I'm sure you can move over to the inn if –"

"No, really. I'm really glad I came, and I really miss us all being together like this, but we're not doing anything here. We're just waiting around until we get a solid lead, and I can do that just as well from home, like everyone else." She turned to Ava. "I'm not angry at you or anything. Truth is, I've been missing home a bit and this is as good a reason as any to go." She punctuated this by giving Ava a hug. "I'm really glad I got to know you. I like you SO much better than I ever liked Tess."

Ava smiled slightly and whispered "Thanks. And I feel the same about you."

Dawn interrupted the moment by asking "Where are we going to find a doctor to help with this? I mean, you're going to need a doctor anyway, but this isn't something a GP can really look in to."

Jonas thought for a moment. "We can ask Dr. Lam at the base."

Ava got a sour look on her face. "I really don't want the military poking around at me."

He shook his head. "When this is all over you're going to be on file. You already admitted what you are to them; they're not just going to forget it. They are going to want a medical exam on record at least. Not to mention that they are used to dealing with these odd kind of things. Seriously, some of the weird shit that goes on there would make even the Watchers Council take pause. If there is something to be done, they are the ones who could figure it out."

After a minute or so Ava relented. "Alright, I'll go to the base and get looked at. But Andrew and Spike are coming with me and I'm taking an emergency transport amulet."

Jonas nodded. "I'll get Spike to set it up with the General."

Dawn stood up. "Ok then, I'll send Isobel home when she's ready. Anybody else scared of babies and wanna turn tail on us?"

The group exchanged looks and Maria spoke for them all. "I think we're going to go with Isobel to Cardiff. Might as well wait with her."

Dawn shrugged. "Ok. Just let me know when you're ready." She then grabbed Ava's hand and dragged her out of the room and out the door to the back yard.


	35. Connections: 10

**Chapter 35: Digression, Sam**

* * *

'I'm so pathetic' Sam thought as she sat in the infirmary next to Spike Summers. 'The second I hear about Ava's effect on people I attach myself to her like a System Lord to a warm body.'

The worst part of it was that everyone knew why she was doing it, but nobody said a word about it. You would think the idea of her wanting to have a baby was aberrant or crazy. Or maybe they just didn't want to bring up what could be a touchy subject for her since they didn't know her well. As it was Jack thought it was funny. Ok, so maybe nearly following the girl into the bathroom was a little on the stalker side, but she hadn't really been paying attention to where she was headed at the time.

The logical side of Sam's mind knew that she and Jack had been right. A baby at this point was not really the best idea for their family. She was entrenched in a time consuming and demanding career and Jack was older and not at top health anymore. Adopting a child of early elementary age was more fitting to their lifestyle in DC, and would be better if they finally got back here to the SGC like they wanted to. But this was a once in a lifetime kind of shot. How many contagious pregnancies are you going to run in to? Might as well take the chance and roll with it. Worst case, it doesn't happen and they continue on with their plans. Hell, best case it does work and they still adopt. It's not like they couldn't handle more than one kid.

Spike was smirking at her. There was just something about that guy that seemed off to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe it was his smugness. He kind of reminded her of Rodney sometimes with that arrogance of his.

She shifted in her seat and looked down at her laptop. She had spent a good chunk of the last week trying to find the planet where Ava originated. If they could find it and learn more about that half of Ava's physiology then they would be better able to figure out this phenomenon. Not to mention the technology that it would have taken to engineer her and the others.

Sam had figured out fairly early on that Michael, Max and Isobel had to be the other versions of Ava's family. The biggest clue had been the odd way that she looked at Max. Like she was seeing a ghost or a memory of someone she loved. Sam recognized it because that's how she felt when she looked at Jon sometimes. Like she was seeing a weird echo of the person that was her other half. Who he could be under other circumstances. From there it had been easy to see who the others were. Isobel was Max's sister, and the two of them and Michael formed a visible unit within the group of the family. That meant that Alex was part alien as well. That explained the powers he seemed to have.

Then she had found the records of the Special Investigation that had been launched against them. It had been a group of NID agents on their own little crusade. She also found that the whole thing had been shut down for about a year due to chronic overspending and zero results. Every attempt they made to get these kids cost millions, and they didn't have anything to show for it. Not to mention that the last lead they got lead to Cleveland and there was a mandate that no member of any covert ops unit was to get within 20 miles of there. Apparently the Watchers Council had made quite an impression on some very important people to prevent another Initiative from being formed. Of course she hadn't been able to tell them that before they fled like bunnies. She had settled for relaying a message to them through Willow. Plus she had found out through some backdoor searches that Max and Isobel's parents had apparently taken in a baby boy the week after their children had disappeared. She kind of wished that she could see that interesting family reunion.

Sam closed her laptop and stood as Ava and Andrew exited the curtained off area where Carolyn had examined her. Time for more stalker duty.


	36. Connections: 11

**Chapter 36**

* * *

Spike sat down on his sleeping bag with a huff. He had been on this planet for a week and he missed his own bed, and his wife in it.

He had been permanently assigned to SG-11 along with Jon just after the 4th of July and this was their first mission as a team. They had all been off world before, but now they were forging the relationships that would last for maybe years together. Jon had been really excited to get his own team and had handpicked every member. A lot of the book people had resented the fact that Spike had gotten a team when there were so many of them who had been waiting for years to be placed. Jon had gone to great pains to find two more people who were supernaturally aware for their team. He wanted to be able to have a close team that wasn't split in half by such a huge secret. In fact he was able to find a field medic named Jenna Summers – not any relation that Dawn was able to dig up in her background check – and a former MP named Sean Culpepper. They were friends already and they had been in LA together on vacation when the Black Thorn incident had happened years earlier.

It had been decided that they would be let in on everything that was going on with SG1 now, and about their personal involvement as well. Jon was a firm believer that secrets within a team were dangerous. They bred distrust and made people question the loyalty of their teammates.

So tonight, their last night off world, they were going to tell the story of slayers, vampires and clones oh my!

And bloody hell, Jon and Jack were rubbing off on him.

* * *

Connor sat spinning his large hunting knife on the desk in his and Cameron's motel room as he waited for Willow to finish her lemon locator check. It had been a hard and irritating couple of months in DC. The demon population was much larger than anyone expected and narrowing down the possible locations for their specific prey had been tedious. And it didn't help that they couldn't just go in and eliminate the other demons they did find, because they were trying to keep a low profile.

Finally Willow was done. "Hey guys, I think we've finally got it!"

Connor jumped up and nearly collided with Cameron in their hurry to get to the spot at the small table where she was set up. 'Guess I'm not the only anxious to get this over with then.' Connor thought to himself.

Things had gone surprisingly well with him and the military man. They both had rather easy going manners and shared the same sense of humor. Neither pressed the other for details of their respective battles against evil either. The aliens were classified and Conner just wasn't that into talking about it. They seemed to get each other, so everything was smooth.

Cameron was the first to ask. "You found them?"

Willow nodded. " I finally figured out how to isolate the energy of the victims and the random psychic demons from our 'Grimaces'." She used air quotes and rolled her eyes at the last word.

Connor smiled. "I like that term. Seems appropriate really."

Willow just shook her head. "Anyway, there is a large group of them here." She pointed at an apartment block about 3 miles from the capital building. "Now all we need to do is scout out the area and plan our attack."

"You make it sound so easy." Mitchell deadpanned.

"Well, ok, not simple, but hey, end of the road here."

Connor sighed. "I don't know about you, but I want to go home. I have a family waiting on me and I know for a fact that there is someone waiting on you too."

Cameron smiled. "Hey, going home is good. I just think that this whole scouting thing is going to be dicey. Unless you got some magic for invisibility that you haven't mentioned yet."

Willow shook her head. "Nothing that will really work for that. I mean you would be invisible, but they would still be able to hear you and your body heat would still set off sensors and stuff. Video would even pick you up. I don't have anything safe that would do better than that. You guys have any tech that would work?"

Cameron nearly nodded and then sighed and shook his head. "There is something, but there's no way they would let us get hold of it. We're trying to keep the SGC out of it and that would be way too obviously from there." He really wished that they could just use the Sodan cloak or Merlin's devise, but that was way too risky.

Connor considered for a moment. "What about Ava?"

Mitchell's face screwed up in confusion. "The alien? What about her."

"Didn't she demonstrate her 'mind warp' thing for you guys?"

Willow nodded vigorously. "Yeah! She can make people think what she wants them to. But it takes a lot of concentration and I don't know how long it would last or how effective it would be on such a group. Or even if it would work on these demons. Worth a try though."

* * *

"Vala, can we please stop talking about this?"

"No, Daniel, we can't! I am completely terrified. You weren't around when I was pregnant before. Tomin though I was possessed of a devil for a good part of our marriage. And let me tell you, that experience has in no way inspired any kind of confidence. Not to mention the VIVID memories of childbirth, and the actual child. I am obviously not cut out for parenting. She tried to kill me for God's sake!"

Daniel struggled not to roll his eyes. He had known that he would eventually give in and sleep with Vala, at the very least, but somehow in all of his imaginings (mostly shading into very inappropriate areas) he hadn't seen this coming. He was beginning to think that there were some Ascended beings with a seriously messed up sense of humor and a lot of time on their hands.

"Adria was in no way your fault. Not to mention that you aren't exactly going to be alone."

"Well, no, of course I won't. I'll be raising our child in an underground military base that hasn't gone 5 months without a lockdown or a foothold situation since the moment it opened. Isn't that comforting?"

Daniel went to speak….. but he didn't really have an argument for that. Vala had been an official part of the program for over 3 years now, and she was still basically confined to the base most of the time. She rarely ventured out for more than a few hours at a time unless she blackmailed, charmed, or annoyed the General into a couple of days out. The only reason she was in London now was because it was part of a mission. And the minute that Landry heard that she was no longer part of the fighting force, he would probably order her back to base.

"Ok, I'll give you that. Look I'm sure we can work something out."

Vala sad down and huffed. "Oh, and let's not forget the weirdness that is our relationship. Do you know how much I love you Daniel? In the five years since we met I've gone from attracted, to slightly fond, to head over heels, back to fond again, then past all the rest to hopeless and frustrated. Then I finally get somewhere and, BAM, everything is all screwed up again. I am just not willing to wait 12 years like Sam and Jack. I simply don't have the patience!"

Daniel sat back on his heels in front of her. "Vala, would you go out with me? I was thinking, dinner; maybe a movie with as much popcorn as you can stand, and even flowers."

Vala smiled brightly at him. "That's rather elaborate for a second date."

"First date."

"Oh, come on Daniel, admit it already."

"That was not a date!"

"Well… I've heard you should never go all the way on a first date."

"Ok, fine, it was a date."


	37. Connections: 12

**Chapter 37**

* * *

Andrew was still helping Ava with the kids and all of her other job related things. In return she was helping him with a few organizational issues he was having with his files. They said it was an equal trade, but everyone knew that Andrew had tangled up his files on purpose to let Ava help. As long as she felt she was pulling her weight and not taking advantage of him, no one was willing to burst her bubble.

Things were a bit strained at the Rest. Buffy and Xander had appeared one day and stayed nearly a month so far. Vi had come to stay while Spike was off world because she couldn't stand being at the cottage by herself. That upped the number of pregnant women in the house from 1 to 3. Not fun for the rest of the household. Sam had finally stopped hovering around Ava after about 3 weeks, but Andrew was starting to suspect that was because she had accomplished her goal, which would up it to 4.

Dr. Lam had decided that she would monitor Ava's pregnancy through house calls instead of risking someone at the base finding out about what was going on. Now she came by once every evening and stayed for hours getting information on the situation and presumably passing it on to her father: off the record. She was overly interested in what Mitchell was up to though.

Laura and her kids were bored. They missed their lives back in LA, but with Connor in DC it really wasn't safe for the family of a known hunter to be unprotected. So they were staying whether they wanted to or not.

Oh, and Andrew was moving to town permanently.

This all left Dawn with a headache that just wouldn't go away and a house full of people who just wouldn't go away.

Dawn looked over at Jonas as she finished her paperwork for the day. "This is why I moved here you know."

"Really? There are a lot of pregnant women pissy wives and cranky toddlers at the headquarters?"

If he was trying to be cute, it wasn't working. "No. Just the chaos of a group of people that are constantly in each other's faces and taking out their frustration on innocent bystanders. I don't know – "

The ringing phone cut her off.

"Hello" she sighed.

She listened for a moment and then sagged back in her chair. "Oh, thank god. Just have the guys get their shit together and I'll have a portal ready in 10."

"Love you too Will, bye." She squealed as she hung up and ran out of the office and into the family room where Ava and Vi were hanging out while AJ played with Diana and Liam watched cartoons.

"They found them. Search is over, now comes Scout and Take Down." The girls smiled.

* * *

Angel sat lazily in his office chair as he finished up his phone call with his son.

"No Connor, I'm not going."

/……./

"All the work you guys have done, in the past couple of weeks since I left, is the work that matters the most. I don't have much to add. Besides which, I promised myself that I'd never go back there, and the reasons I needed to come home are still a problem."

/……./

Of course I'm going to help in the fight."

/……../

He sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll give you the coordinates and you can have Dawn open a portal. Guess I could visit with Laura and the kids if nothing else."

After a couple of minutes they hung up and Angel slammed his forehead down on his desk.

He had spent most of the last couple of months prowling around Washington DC with his son and a couple of other guys trying to find a nest of mind control demons and their alien partners. He had enjoyed the challenge, not to mention spending so much time with his son. After about a month or so, the one guy, Kyle, had gone to a meeting and not returned, leaving him with just Connor and Cameron. Losing the extra man hadn't really made a difference since they weren't really getting anywhere and he started to get frustrated with the whole thing. Then, a few weeks ago, he had received a call from Carrie, saying that she needed him to come home ASAP and deal with some people who were causing a problem at the shelter.

When he got there, he found the place a wreck. A gang had decided to break in and tear the place apart because they didn't like a bunch of kids hanging around their neighborhood who weren't working with them. Half the kids had run off and the other half were too scared to leave the building.

He was still trying to get the place cleaned up, not to mention finding the runners and bringing them home, and now he had to go to Colorado and deal with people who he had hoped never to see again.

After he left there the last time he made a whole new life to wash away the old one. He made new friends, he found a new way to help people that didn't involve them or the supernatural fight that they waged. He even found a new love, after he finally gave up on his old one.

He wasn't hiding from his feelings for Buffy, or avoiding seeing her happy with someone else. He was embarrassed. He had spent years following her around like a puppy dog and watching her move on with her life without him. He had made a fool out of himself with all of them over it. Now that he was past it, now that he could see his behavior clearly, he wanted to forget it had ever happened. And to be fair, he was avoiding Spike.

Spike who had taken his place utterly in the lives of everyone they knew, even if the thing with Buffy hadn't lasted. Spike who had the simple life that Angel just couldn't bring himself to have. A vampire, living with the same human woman for years, RETIRING to the suburbs with a free and easy conscience.

Technically he could have them, he just held himself back. After LA things hadn't really changed for a long time. He had his curse and his burden and he went on as always. But After Connor's wedding Willow had decided to fix him. She had done a complicated ritual and freed him of his curse. His soul was his, free and clear, just like Spike's was. The gang had decided that they didn't want him going on a killing spree because he held his grandson for the first time or something.

That had given him hope that he and Buffy stood a chance. Sure, she hadn't been speaking to him, but he had been convinced that she hadn't really moved on either. The only men she had been with for more than a week since Reilly were Spike and that Immortal guy. He had a shot.

A week later Spike showed up to tell him that, not only was he living it up with a pretty little slayer, but Buffy had moved to Africa to be with Xander, and not as friends.

Well, maybe he had overreacted a bit.

But now he had a life. He had a teen shelter in New York City, where he gave help to kids. He had a girlfriend, Carrie, who understood him and didn't mind his brooding. He had a close relationship with his son and grandchildren.

Why did they need him anyway? Wasn't one vampire enough?


	38. Connections: 13

**Chapter 38**

* * *

The atmosphere was tense to say the least. Almost everyone had arrived and now all they had to do was wait for a few stragglers to join them. Jon and Spike were back at the base, but didn't know when they would be able to leave, Vicky and Mel, who were very much needed for the meeting to begin, were going to be at least another half hour. That left the assembled party to their own devices for the time being.

There was a group of women in one corner comprised of Ava, Vala, Dawn, Vi, Sam, Buffy, Laura, and Liz. This was the mommy group, and everyone knew it except for Angel. Cam, Andrew, Jack, Xander, Teal'c, and Kyle were standing to one side having a heated conversation about Star Wars. Jonas, Daniel and Glies were in their own little book world. Most of the rest of the group was sitting around the fire in twos and threes, having their own private chats, and Angel was sitting to the side, watching. After a few minutes Faith came over and joined him.

"Hey, Fang, stop with the brooding. There's kids here. Don't wanna scare 'em." She said as she nodded her head torwards where Connor sat with two other guys and a group of four children.

"What are they doing here anyway? I don't think this is a very good place for my grandchildren, or the other two for that matter, to be hanging out right now."

She shrugged. "Their parents and their babysitter are here, and besides, this is the world they are being raised in. No point sheltering them for the safe part. Want 'em to know how we deal with the monster under the bed, ya' know?"

"I guess." Angel watched the group for a moment longer. "Who's the one with the hair?"

"Huh? Oh, Michael. He's one of Willow's team."

"He looks farmilliar."

"He should. You met him a while back. Sent him to us with his girlfriend."

Angel nodded. "Smart kid. Told me something I needed to hear that night."

After a quiet moment the children came running up to them. "Faith! Candy?"

Angel looked between the little dark eyed boy and the Slayer. Faith shifter slightly and pulled four pieces of gum from her pocked. "Angel, this is my little buddy Alex. His mommy and daddy work with me in Cleveland."

"Nice to meet you Alex." The little boy smiled shyly and hid behind Liam, who smiled at his grandfather.

"Hi, Angel" Liam said as he grabbed 2 pieces of gum from Faith and muttered 'thanks' as he and Alex ran back over to their fathers. Faith went to give the others a piece each and then changed her mind at the last second.

"Yo, Dawn, Laura. Is gum cool for the minis?"

The mothers shook their heads and then Dawn said. "There is a bag of marshmallows behind you. Give 'em one of those instead."

Faith nodded. "Cool."

After the kids had run back to their group Angel snickered. "When did you go all 'Auntie Faith'?"

She snorted. "Please. Giving out candy is about as far as I go. 'Sides, known Alex and AJ all their lives. Hard to resist after a while."

Angel nodded. "So, AJ is Dawn and Jonas's son then."

"Yeah, damn cute kid. Hella sweet too. Coures he's an alien, so who knows how he'll be as a teenager."

"Alien?"

"Oh yeah, you missed out on the big alien reveal." Faith smirked and leaned forward a bit on her elbows. It was fun telling the gossip instead of being the focus of it for once. "Turns out that Jonas, Cassie, and the nanny are all aliens of some sort or another. Oh, and Andy and his Star Trek baby momma set off an epidemic."

Angel looked at her. "Huh?"

"Had a rash of pregnancies pop up round here. Turns out that alien girl is giving off, like, vibes or some shit. Like there weren't enough of the Summers' running around."

"So what, Dawn and Buffy got pregnant?" Angel paled slightly. Buffy was pregnant. It bothered him a bit. Not nearly as much as he had expected, but in a kind of distant way.

"Nah. Well, I suppose it's possible, but Dawn hasn't said anything. I meant Buffy and Vi."

Ok, now he was confused. "What does Vi have to do with Summers'. I thought her last name was Roberts?"

Faith was quiet for a minute. She could explain the whole thing, or not. She probably should, just so he wasn't blindsided by it later. "It was, but she got married a while back, to – "

Of course she was cut off by the arrival of Jon and Spike followed by Jack's shout of "Hey, Summers, MiniMe, come over here and help me explain a few things to these guys."

An uncomfortable silence filled the yard. Of course the SGC group had no idea what it was about. Jack was just about to say something when Faith grabbed Angel by the arm and yanked him into the main house and down to the basement, followed swiftly by Vi, Buffy and Spike.

Jack just stared after them for a minute. "Huh."

* * *

Angel was reeling. This whole thing just wasn't making any sense to him. "What the fuck is going on Faith? How is Spike going by Summers now, and buddies with the military? He was terrified of them the last time I checked. And Vi? And his hair? What the hell is up with that?"

He was pacing the room like a caged animal. There was something here that Faith obviously didn't want to be the one to tell them. Vi had mentioned kids before. Maybe she got a sperm donor or something. Maybe Spike was using an alias around town and met these guys that way. It wasn't a huge city. Maybe…..

"I changed my hair 'cause Vi said the peroxide didn't look right with my complexion anymore."

"What?"

Buffy came around him and looked at him accusingly. "I thought it was 'cause it didn't look professory enough."

"What?"

Vi came down the stairs and whacked Spike on the back of the head. "I had nothing to do with it. He said, and I quote, 'New life, new locks pet.' And I wish you'd quit telling people I made you do it. It figures, no matter which century you're born in, a man's fall back defense is always 'blame it on the wife.' How juvenile is that, really?"

Faith whistled and yelled, "Hey! Can we get back on track here? Fang here is about to have the very first vampire coronary."

Vi and Spike sobered and Buffy sat down and started to explain. "About 7 or so months after we last saw you Vi made Spike human."

Angel collapsed into a chair. "But the prophecy…."

Vi cut in, "Had absolutely nothing to do with it. We thought it might at the time, but it's totally unrelated. On the up side; it's all you now. Back to the whole one of a kind thing, so you can go for it if you want and don't have any competition."

Angel shook his head. "I signed that away for the Black Thorn thing. How did you do it then? That was supposed to be the only way."

"There was a poker game in town. I won a wish from a girl there. She was apparently owed a favor from Dehofrin and she used it to pay up. I went for it. Worst case, nothing happened. We're still pretty surprised that it worked actually. I wouldn't count on it happening again though. Dude was pretty pissed."

"So, what? You got pregnant because of this alien thing and decided you had to get married?"

Spike chuckled. "Naw. Been married for ages. Baby would have happened soon enough anyway. We were trying for it. The only purely accidental pregnancy, except for Vala anyway, was Ava's."

Angel looked to Buffy, who just shrugged and changed the subject. "So, legally, Spike is now a Summers cousin. He's got a PhD in History and he works at the SGC as a cultural specialist. None of them know about his real past and stuff. And you can't just sign on the dotted line and poof away a prophecy. If it was meant for you, then it was meant for you."

* * *

No one was really surprised that Angel never returned to the gathering. The SGC personnel were told that he was reacting to Buffy's pregnancy and he wasn't taking it well. Most knew there was probably more to it, but didn't want to ask.


	39. Connections: 14

**Chapter 39**

* * *

The plan, once the drama had come to a close, was decided on pretty easily.

On the morning of July 21st, there was a mass entrance, by portals, to the metropolitan DC area. Willow's full team, Dawn's family – minus AJ who stayed behind with Cassie and all the other children since she was the one who could contribute the least to the fight, the SGC contingent, the Melbourne slayer house, the former Roswell residents, Faith and Rona's crews, and all the other various witches and support staff gathered at a park a few blocks from the target under the guise of a company outing.

It turned out that using Ava's mind warp wasn't as much of a problem as they expected. With the support of the other royals and a few highly powerful wiccans, she was able to get 4 people into the base without a problem. There were a few close calls, but Connor, Faith, Rona and Kyle were able to think on their feet and accomplish the mission quickly.

"Ok, so here is the basic layout of the front end security. There are a few cameras and coded doors on the inside, but they are expecting a frontal assault, so that's where the big guns are." Connor explained to the planning group.

"Yeah, and we saw a couple of those anti-beaming things that Sam mentioned, so they feel pretty secure on that end." Kyle added.

"What about rings?" asked Daniel.

"Saw them near the front, where the security is." Answered Rona. "Willow's barrier should keep them from using it as a means of escape."

Kyle rubbed his temples. "There are quite a few of the aliens in there. Their auras, or whatever, are kind of different from humans. Not in a big way, but enough for me to see that they were off."

Faith strolled over to the pavilion from a group that was playing volleyball as a cover. "It's really annoying that these guys don't set off the slaydar. Just cause they aren't supernatural. I mean, bad guys are bad guys, right?" She shook her head. "Anyway, the demons are living it up in section of the building separated from the Trust dudes by a couple flights of stairs and a good chunk of empty space. Don't think they get along that well."

Rona sighed. "We couldn't get in there, but we left a couple of magical markers in the middle of the unused space. We figure we can go in four groups. One group through the front door with heavy shields and big distracting explosions."

"That's gonna be the military group." Everyone turned and looked at Jack who was leaning back in a camp chair with his feet up on a bench, a beer in each cup holder, and wearing sunglasses, a fishing hat, and a Bart Simpson t-shirt. "What? They're expecting SG1 and crew to come and try to take them out. If there is an attack and we aren't there, they'll know something's up."

Jonas cocked his head. "Then they'll be expecting Sam and Vala to show up as well."

Jack shrugged. "By the time they noticed it's an all boys SG1 reunion it'll be moot."

* * *

Buffy nodded vigorously. "Kay. So that's Teal'c, Jonas, Jon, Spike, Jack, Cam, Daniel…. And we'll send Jenny, Carrie and Leah with them. Carrie and Leah can set up a shield for you guys and Jenny can be secret weapon girl."

Jack scowled. "Jenny's a seventeen year old girl. You can't send your niece in there like that."

Xander looked Jack right in the eye. "This is who she is. Would you rather her with you, doing the distracting, or with the group that's going head first into the nest of a demon clan?"

Jack crossed his arms. "I thought you didn't want anyone to know about the slayers. What if someone sees her?"

Willow rolled her eyes. "The place is going to be crawling with slayers and witches. Not really a secret keeping kind of plan. Besides, nobody is getting out of there. The place is going to be surrounded by my big bad shield and a group of snipers."

The guys looked at her incredulously. "Hey, I don't like guns, don't use them, ever. But we'd be morons if we didn't train these girls in every available weapon against evil. Guns don't work on most demons, but they do work on some."

Vicky cut in to get them back on track. "Right. Group one is the front door distraction. Group two cuts in from the vacant offices behind them and uses surprise to subdue as many as they can. I believe the military would like to interrogate as many of them as possible."

Cam blew out a breath. "We'd 'prefer', but don't risk yourselves for it. Just as good dead really."

"Right, well, as I was saying. Team two will be Faith and the Cleveland Crew. The third team will be the MTT. They will set up a encompassing barrier spell to keep things contained. Willow and Maria will do the spell together, for added strength, and the other two will be their bodyguards."

Dawn piped up for the first time. "Connor and Angel are with them. They volunteered since she's a big target if anyone figures out what she's up to. And we need that barrier. We don't want anyone getting caught in the crossfire."

Melissa added this to the list she was keeping.

Victoria nodded and went on. "The last group going in will be Melissa and I, The Cardiff team, Xander and the Melbourne team and a couple of extra witches who Melissa has chosen."

Melissa stood and read from her list as she walked to the bullhorn she would use to call everyone together. "That leaves Vala, Sam, Dawn, Vi, Buffy and Ava outside the bubble running interference, Giles with the sniper crew and Andrew on the ground outside with the rest." She looked up and frowned. "Andrew? Really?"

Buffy smiled. "Andrew does know what he's doing. Who do you think runs the exercises at the school?"

"Not to mention the last four or five large demon battle apocalypses." Added Xander.

Giles sighed. "He's done a lot of the business for the council for the last few years. I'm going to be quite lost now that he's moving to Colorado."

"Huh" said Jack.

"I know," said Xander, "that idea takes some getting used to don't it."

* * *

15 minutes later the portaled teams were inside and the front door team was in position.

Andrew spoke quietly into his headset. "On my mark One enters. 3 minutes later all teams are go. Everybody ready?"

"Ready"

"Ready"

"Five by Five"

"Check"

"Three, two, one……MARK!"


	40. Connections: 15

**Chapter 15**

The plan worked perfectly for the biggest part of the encounter. Jack and Co. stormed the front, big talk and bragging and being dicks on the part of the baddies ensued. Faith and her team came from behind and cleaned out any stragglers and anyone who was just too chicken to get into a fight with the SGC. There were a few who ducked through windows and side doors, but they were quickly dealt with. The snipers shot to injure and the ground team took them into custody.

Meanwhile Mel and Vicky stormed the Cregnars' nest. That did not go quite as smoothly. This fight was a much bloodier and more violent one and there were many injuries before it was over. The real problem however came from the outside.

(&)

Over in the small park, Buffy and Vi were sitting on the hood of a Hummer and monitoring the radio chatter coming from the office building a few blocks away. Vala and Ava were comparing notes, inside the vehicle, on a range of things, from pregnancy, to alien cuisine, to soap operas. Dawn was in the bed of an old pick-up truck with Sam prepping the emergency evac portal.

"So, your getting ready to do a really big portal, that we can actually drive through, just in case something goes wrong?"

"Yeah. See, the normal portals I use are smaller and require a lot less energy, so I can do them with a simple phrase and a few herbs. What I'm doing here is presetting a bigger spell. Basically I'm doing everything but the chanting now, so that if we have to, I can open up a normal portal to get everyone here, and then the five of you can do the chant and open up the big one."

Sam nodded.

After a few minutes Dawn finished and passed out the pages where she had written down the spell for them. They had all gathered near the hood of the Hummer by this point.

Vi whistled. "Damn, Andrew sounds kind of sexy all in charge like that."

Ava laughed. "Yeah, but he can't really pull it off in person."

Dawn nodded. "He has this look on his face like he's not sure if anyone is actually going to listen to him, or if they're just going to yell at him. It's really sweet actually."

"So, does that mean that my Daniel is the only one of our men who Dawn hasn't had a crush on at some point then?" Vala asked.

Dawn blushed. "Hey, I never had crush on Jack either. And as for the others, can you blame me, really?"

Vala made a show of considering this. "No, I suppose not. Although, isn't Spike your cousin?"

"Distant." stated both Buffy and Dawn emphatically.

"Anyway," Dawn said dismissively, "Xander is a walking hug, Spike was my protector, and Andrew was that sweet guy who tried so hard to help the people he cared about. Now Jonas is all Xander and Andrewy, with a splash of the Spike. True love."

There was a chorus of "Aww", but Buffy cut in. "Everybody's in."

There was a long silence as they listened to the chatter for signs of trouble.

After a bit Vala couldn't take the quiet any more. "Do you know yet if you have successfully conceived Sam?"

Sam looked uncomfortable for a second, and then smiled. "Yes. Actually I found out that following Ava around was a waste of time. Turns out I was pregnant before we all found out about the effect. I'm about 4 weeks behind the rest of you."

There was a round of squeals and hugs before Buffy and Vi both looked up and then at each other.

"Someone's coming." said Vi.

Buffy nodded. "A couple of helicopters just out of everyone else's visual range."

The girls quickly scattered and hid all the weapons and covered the magic circle in the truck bed with the tarp they brought with them. Vi grabbed the radio and hid it in a tote bag while they moved over to a picnic table they had set up as a cozy little meeting area. They didn't have to wait long for their guests.

(&)

"You're kidding right, sir?"

Major James Martin looked at his c.o. disbelievingly. The Colonel shook his head and turned back to look down on the group of women in the park below. The two helicopters set down on the grass and the team of 20 soldiers made their way over to the table, weapons drawn.

"All I'm saying is, it wouldn't be a waste of money. Come on Vala, back me up here."

The colonel stepped forward and addressed the group. "Excuse me, ladies."  


They looked up. Dawn was the first to speak. "Riley, long time no see. Since Sunnydale right? How can we help you."

When Colonel Riley Finn had received the call that unknown hostiles were attacking a government secret base and they were being led or controlled by a group at the park, this was not what he had expected to find. He was struggling not to show his confusion on his face. He had been ordered to stop the assault, period. He couldn't just walk away, he had to deal with them.

"Dawn, Buffy, You need to stop whatever it is that you are doing and pull your people out. Now."

Buffy rolled her eyes at her ex. "I know men don't really like hearing about morning sickness and hemorrhoids and stuff, but bringing armed men to stop a mommies to be group is a little ridiculous."

There were a few murmurs from the crowd of soldiers.

"Look, I don't know what you think is going to happen here, but I've got orders to end this confrontation and take the hostiles into custody. You people have a habit of associating with HSTs so I'm not inclined to take this little display at face value. If you don't cooperate, I will eliminate one of your friends here to make my point. Are we clear?"

Sam stood and walked over to the soldiers. "I'm sorry, did I just hear you threaten the lives of 5 pregnant women?"

"Six." Dawn piped up from the table.

Her friends turned to her and she shrugged. "Like you guys are really surprised?"

Vala snorted and Sam returned her attention to Riley. "Excuse me, six pregnant women. Including an Air Force Colonel who works in the pentagon?"

"Look, I don't want anyone to get hurt here. Just call of your people and come with us and we can try to work something out. I'm sorry ma'am, but I have to follow my orders."

Buffy stood to protest, but Vi waved her down and grabbed the radio from the tote bag. She turned the dial to increase the volume from the whisper it had been at and waited a second for the channel to clear.

"...Apollo beamed them all up in here. Did you get everyone tagged out there Andrew?"

"Yeah. Ok, their gone. Clear a path for the medics."

"Shield's down."

Vi spoke into the radio. "Hey, guys. We need all the daddies and Colonel Mitchell down in the park. We have some guests with guns-"

Major Martin took the radio out of her hand.

Riley turned to his men. "Take them into custody. Cuff them and put them in one of the choppers."

Dawn leaned over and whispered in Ava's ear as she stood. Ava nodded and slowly began to extract herself from the bench. One of the soldiers grabbed her arm and attempted to hurry her.

"Hey watch it buddy. She's freaking five months pregnant." Buffy yelled at the guy. Then she turned to Riley. "What you thought we were kidding about what we were doing here?"

The soldier dropped Ava's arm and apologized as Riley tried to get control back of the situation. "Just check them for weapons and move them to the choppers. And be nice huh."

Major Martin approached him. "Sir, there's a group of people coming and they don't look very happy."

Riley nodded. "Surround them and bring them in."

(&)

Less than five minutes later the soldiers were all cuffed and sitting, or laying, in a circle and Riley was being frog marched over to the pavilion where they had done their planning earlier in the day. The only ones who stayed for this confrontation were the girls, the six pissed off fathers, Giles, Cameron, Jon and the four slayers who were guarding the soldiers, including Jenny.

Buffy dropped Riley's collar and smacked him on the back of the head.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You're so lucky that Faith took their guns away before they came back here or all of you would be dead. Not to mention that you were attempting to disrupt a top secret military operation. I'm not even going to mention that you actually thought that 20 guys was enough to do it. Hell I can take care of more than that alone."

"I didn't know it was you. I got my orders, I came. I don't know how these guys convinced you that they were military, but my orders come from the pentagon and they would have known if a sanctioned operation was going on. And - What the fuck?"

Everyone turned to look for what had freaked Riley out and when they saw Spike standing behind Vi with his arms around her, in the afternoon sun, Dawn let out an exasperated breath. "Oh for god's sake, He's human alright? He was a vampire, now he's not. He's also married and having a kid. Are we done now? Can we get on with the whole arresting Generals part so I can go home to my kid."

There was a long moment of silence interrupted only by Sam rushing off and puking in a bush. About the time she returned, Jack's phone rang.

"O'Neill"

"No problem."

He hung up and clapped his hands.

"General Landry would like us to continue this conversation back at the base. Dawn, would you mind helping with the transportation for Colonel Finn and ourselves?"

Dawn nodded mutely.

"Good. And then, later, at some point, you're going to explain to the rest of us what that was all about. Ok? Good. Let's move."


	41. Connections: 16

**Chapter 16**

The next thing Riley Finn knew, he was standing on a space ship. A freaking space ship! He was also surrounded by a large group of armed marines.

"It's cool guys, you can put the guns down. Colonel Finn here just needs to have a chat with the General." The soldiers obeyed with a courus of 'yes sir's.

Riley rubbed his hands over his face and muttered "I am so screwed".

The guy who had given the order clapped him on the shoulder and steered him out of the room. "You should not have pissed those girls off. And from what I hear, you knew that."

Riley just shook his head and continued on to his doom.

(&)

General Landry had not been as hard to deal with as Riley had expected. He had calmly listended to Riley's story, and the arguement that followed, and then explained exactly what he had busted in on.

It turned out that even though the op was technicaly unsanctioned by the military, since the WC had blanket authourity in the supernatural, nothing illegal had gone down. Now they wanted to know who had given the order, and he wasn't telling.

"Look son, we need to know. That person could very well be a part of the Trust."

"Or a victim of the demons sir." He countered.

"Either way, we need to know. Other decisions made recently may need to be reviewed."

"Sir I - "

"It was Sam wasn't it?" interupted Buffy. The look he gave her answered the question. "The person who gave the order was his wife, Colonel Samantha Finn."

Jack was affronted. "You married your c. o.? That's... not fair."

Vala patted his cheek. "I'm sure you and General Hammond would have made a lovely couple."

The whole room exploded with laughter.

After a moment Buffy laid a small pile of papers on the table in front of the general. "Rona gave this to Andrew before she left. It's a list of people we are sure were being controled by the Grimaces. Sam was one of them. They've had the team on standby in DC for 6 months."

Riley paled. His wife hadn't been herself for 6 months. This was SO much worse than the time with Buffy. How could he not have noticed something like that?

"Chill Riley. This was a more subtle control. They just placed suggestions in her mind. She was still her."

Riley looked at Buffy gratefully.



(&)

After a short, entirely uninformative, briefing, Riley and his group were uncerimoniously dumped back in ther park to go on their way. Riley wasn't exactly happy about it, but there wasn't much he could do.

All the Trust prisoners were transported on the Apollo to a secure offworld detention center. There wasn't a gate on that world, so there was nowhere to run.

And thus life returned to normal for the Colorado slayers and their family.


	42. Connections: 17

**Disclaimer:** God, I wish I owned any of this stuff.  
**  
**

**Chapter 17**

Once all of the big battle drama was over, everything was calm. And surprisingly it stayed that way for 4 months. In fact everything went extremely smoothly with everything until the day that Ava went into labor.

In that time the issue of security breach had been effectively buried and white washed out of existence by the SGC and the President. The group chasing down the Antarans had been completely flushed out of all of their hidey holes and shipped off to off world detention. Ava had been declared a legal Alien resident, and she and Andrew had set up house at the Rest.

Sam had eventually confronted Micheal and Maria about what she had discovered. He hadn't exactly taken it well, but Maria had been able to get Michael to cooperate. That meant that he, Max, and Isobel got a full physical exam and disclosed their powers, as Ava had already done, but would be able to return to their lives and even go back to Roswell if they wanted. Liz and Kyle were considered irrelevant, except in the effect that Max's power had on people. Short physicals and a few questions was all there was to it.

All the kids were caught in a grey area. AJ had been born without the government ever stepping in, and it set a precedent for all the other children to be born, and Alex. General Landry got together with the President and Colonel Carter and made it official that any children born on Earth were given the same legal status as any child born to foreign citizens in America. It didn't mean that they weren't interested in them, but they were willing to settle for a hands off approach.

The supernatural element was studiously ignored on any and all reports about the incident. Nobody really wanted any part of that particular battle. There was already a dedicated military unit in that area, so they left it that way.

Every single member of the Watcher's Council who was present for the battle signed NDAs, with the understanding that they would tell the slayer squads what they needed to know to recognize a Goa'uld, but not about the program itself.

Jack O'Neill had been severely creeped out when he and his friends had discovered the exact truth about Spike. Daniel and Sam had argued that his credentials were fake and that he wasn't actually qualified for his position. Giles had informed her that his degrees were real. He had done all the required work for his thesis, taken all of the exams, it was just the background for that that was faked. Sam was not particularly satisfied with that, but Daniel gave in and said he did exceptional work, so... whatever.

They all eventually agreed to keep it to themselves.

(&)

On the day that Ava went into labor, a lot of things happened.

First thing in the morning was Dawn's appointment with Dr. Lam.

Over the course of the summer she had become a trusted friend to the Council. She asked for and received special permission to see all of the outside pregnant women. Due to her special circumstances, Ava had been using her for an OB throughout her pregnancy, and Dawn joined her for convenience. Buffy and Vi wanted a doctor they could be completely up front with since they were on fairly untread ground. Nikki Wood was the only slayer they knew of who ever had a baby, and she hadn't had any prenatal care and her experience was completely undocumented. Vala would have seen her anyway, and Sam was worried because of her age and the naquada in her system.

So, once a month Buffy portaled in and everybody went to their appointments.  


"Oh... wow." Dawn said as she looked at the sonogram. This was at least the third time she had seen it, but she was still amazed.

"I know. I wish I could figure out what it is about Ava, because I could make a killing in the fertility field."

Dawn gave Carolyn a look. "We got really lucky though. There could have been a lot of unhappy women. And it's a damn good thing that Jenny didn't end up pregnant. I would have been a grandmother before 30. **And** it's a damn good thing that Jonas and I are so well off."

Carolyn rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, it's not like your having sextuplets or anything."

"No, but still."

"Well, you do get to be the one to tell the others. That's something to look forward to."

Dawn grinned evilly. "OOOhhhhh. Bring them in."

Half way down the hall a new recruit turned to his companion and asked.

"What's that high pitched squealing sound coming from the infirmary?"

His only answer was "Baby day" and a shrug as they continued down the hall.

(&)

"Three?!" Buffy exclaimed after all of the happy yelling was over.

"Well, we knew it was probably twins, but we couldn't get a good picture before." Dawn explained to her shocked sister.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. Do you know the sexes yet?"

"No, Its going to be a surprise."

Vi rolled her eyes as she moved to sit on the bed across the way. "Don't you think 'Hey Triplets' is enough of a surprise for one pregnancy?"

Vala grinned. "At least it's not 'Hey, I'm an evil being bent on conquering the universe'"

Ava snorted. "What about the 'Hey we have psychic powers' part."

Buffy nodded. "Plus names. That's a lot of baby names to think of. And can't name them all after other people. We only know so many, and most of the big ones are already taken."

Sam looked up from the sonogram picture that had been passed around. "How's that?"

Dawn started ticking off fingers. "Arron James Quinn, for my maternal grandfather and Jonas' dad. Then there is Alex Parker Evans, who is not named after Xander, but kinda covers it. Liam Chase O'Reilly, after Angel and Cordy. Jenny takes Miss Calendar. Vala and Daniel are naming their son Nicholas Rupert, so that's Giles. Buffy and Xander are taking Anna Joyce, for Anya and my mom. The only ones really left are Jesse, who I didn't know, and I want Willow or Xander to be able to do that, and Tara."

Sam nodded. "I see. What about the rest of you?"

"Charles Fredrick Summers. After Spike's friends who died in LA."

"Ryan Jonathan Wells. Andrew ... well, he has guilt."

Buffy and Dawn nodded and they all turned to look at Sam.

"Oh, yeah. Um, Amanda Leigh Carter O'Neill. We didn't want to name her after anyone. Would have been to hard to pick."

Dawn sighed. "You have a point though Buffy. Picking 3 names is going to be hard enough, much less picking 6 to cover my bases."

"Oh, my, god!! Dawn said I was right. It's a miracle." Buffy exclaimed.

(&)

The next surprise that day was for Vala.

"Daniel I really wish you would explain what we are doing here. In case you haven't noticed, your son is a rather large weight. Strolling through Colorado Springs is not high on the list of things that makes it more comfortable."

Daniel sighed. "The parking lot is not that far from my apartment. You can sit down when we get inside. There's something i want to show you, and it's too big to take to your room at the base."

Vala huffed. "Fine, but it better not be some boring artifact."

A few minutes later Daniel helped Vala up the stairs and opened the door wide for her.

"Daniel, your apartment is rather empty."



"No, MY apartment isn't, but YOURS is. Well ok, I am missing a couch, but I figured you'd want to sit down."

Vala was shocked nearly silent. "I don't understand." was all that she could muster as she sat down on the borrowed couch and looked around the room.

"General Landry had decided that there is no reason for you to continue to be confined to the base. You've been cleared to live off base, no strings. You are now officially a civilian consultant to the program. That comes with a raise in your pay, back hazard pay, maternity leave, and - in recognition of your efforts - a one year lease to this apartment, free of charge."

"But that's so much money. I mean, I'm certainly not going to turn it down, but... And I'm going to be here all alone with Nicky. The only thing I know about living in this country is what I've seen on Television. I don't even know how to cook. How -"

Daniel cut her off. "Everything will be fine. One of the perks of living here is that I live right next door. I'll be here to help you with Nicky and I have take out and delivery menus for every restaurant in a 10 mile radius."

He sat down next to her and held her hands in his. "I realize that we have some things to work out between us. And I know for a fact that we aren't ready to live together, or get married like a lot of people having a baby would. But we love each other, and we respect each other, and I think that we can make this work. Who knows, maybe at the end of a year we'll be buying a house for our family to move into together. So what do you say?"

Vala hesitated. "I don't know... How big is it?"

Daniel laughed. "Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, separate dining room and a balcony."

Vala sighed dramatically. "I suppose that it will have to do."

(&)

Meanwhile in a diner in New Mexico, a family was having lunch.

"Jason's teacher told me how much he reminds her of Max. I nearly cried."

Philip Evans gave his wife a squeeze and smiled at his grandson, who was coloring at the booth next to them. "He does favor him."

It had been over 4 years now since the disappearance of Max and Isobel, along with their friends. At the time he and his wife had decided that if they couldn't be there for their children, then they would be for their grandson, who Max had decided to give up. Since no one knew that the baby even existed, Diane and Phillip could take him in under the guise of adopting another orphan, as their other children had been, and no one would be the wiser. Of course, at this point, everyone in Roswell pretty much knew who he was. They named him Jason, and he called them Nana and Papa, and everyone just pretended that the resemblance between him and Max was a coincidence. It was one of those unspoken small town things. Now they were waiting for it to finally be safe for their children to come home, so they could meet him.

Of course it would come as a complete surprise when it happened. They had received a few notes from the kids here and there for a few months after they left. Short postcards saying that they were all safe, sent to each family in turn, and passed around between them. But then it stopped and they heard nothing, until Jesse Ramirez got divorce papers from Isobel a year ago. There had been no way to reply to them though, and no hint that they ever knew what was going on in their parents lives, besides a bouquet of flowers sent to Amy and Jim Valenti congratulating them on their wedding, about 2 years late.

A few quiet minutes later the front door of the Crashdown Cafe opened. Through it walked a young brunet woman and a small boy, maybe 3 years old.

The girl parked the boy at a table and squatted down in front of him.

"Alright, here's the deal. You promise to be good for Auntie Faith until your parents call, and I'll buy you a great big chocolate milkshake. Deal?"

The little boy smiled brightly and nodded.

"Good man."

Phillip watched the pair off and on for quite a while. The boy looked almost exactly like Jason had at that age, except his coloring was different, and the shape of his face.

The two groups ate their meals and Diane made a mention of getting home, but he couldn't leave yet, so he suggested ordering desert. He watched as the girl, Faith, ordered a large milkshake, and instead of giving that much sugar to a small child, she made a game of who could take the biggest drinks, so that the little boy only got about a third of it.

By now Jason was interested in the strangers as well, only he wasn't subtle about it. He got up and walked over to them. "Hi, I'm Jason, Wanna color?"

Faith looked at the kid and nearly gasped. "Um, hi, I'm Faith and this is Alex. Alex, you wanna color for a few minutes while I call your mom and dad?"

Alex nodded and he and Jason grabbed the paper and crayons from Phillip and Diane's table and ran over to an empty one and began coloring.

Faith sat quietly for a moment watching the boys color and play together. She tapped the fingers on her right hand on the table as she studied the pair, and their stark resemblance.

Despite what she had told Angel at the big pow wow months before, Faith was quite close with Alex and his parents. She had actually helped Liz through part of her labor before they finally got her to a hospital. She was the first person, outside of their family, that ever held him. So when they finally dealt with their alien crap, and their legal crap, after the government gig, and needed a slayer as a babysitter/bodyguard while they were in town, she volunteered.

A lot of the people in Cleveland who had lived and worked with Max and Liz over the last few years had felt betrayed and lied to when their true nature had been revealed. A lot of them weren't really working well with them because of it. Not Faith though. Everyone had their secrets, their crosses to bear, and she was no one to judge anybody. Plus she had figured there was something off. Come on, Alex was pretty much super baby. Even his physical development was off the charts. The kid was barely over two years old and he could probably pass for nearly four. And anyway, she and Liz were pretty tight, so when they came out, she had pretty much spilled all the gory details immediately.

Faith's phone rang. "Good, don't have to call and interrupt them now." she mumbled as she flipped it open.

"Hey Mama Bear, hows it going with the in-laws?"

/Their not home./

"Huh. Bummer."

/Well, that's one way to put it I guess. What are you and Alex up to?/

"Stopped at a diner and got some lunch. Gave him some chocolate, bought him some crack and taught him the best way to use a pipe."

/Sounds nice. Haven't seen anything weird right?/

"Cept a couple of waitresses with antenna? Nada."  


/Faith, are you at the Crashdown? That diner my parents own? With the grandson they know nothing about?/

Faith sat up straight in her chair and looked around. Fuck. How could she have forgotten that? "Um..."

/You know what, it's fine. Me and Max and Iz are coming over there anyway since their parents were a bust. I'll call the others first though, see if things went smoother with the Vallentis./

Faith looked at Alex and Jason again. "Kay, I think there's something here you guys ought to see anyway. See you soon."

It was ten minutes later before they showed up. Faith let out a relieved breath. Jason and his parents had been getting ready to leave and Alex had come back over to sit on her lap.

Philip and Diane were helping Jason pick up all of his crayons and things when the door opened behind them. Neither of them really paid it any mind until little Alex jumped down and ran across the room yelling 'Daddy!" and was greeted by a familiar voice.

Max smiled. "Hey, man. Having fun?" He was about to pick him up when Liz reached past him and moved Alex in front of her.

"I see Auntie Faith got you a milkshake." she said with a laugh as she wiped his sticky mouth with a napkin from a nearby table. Alex grinned hugely and nodded.

"Big milkshake!" he said as he threw out his arms to show them just how big it was.

Liz laughed, knowing for a fact that Faith never had, and never would give a kid that much sugar. Faith had surprisingly strong feelings about proper nutrition and eating habits for children. She said that life was hard enough without cavities, diabetes and teen heart attacks.

While Max and Liz were paying attention to their son, Isobel was looking at the only other people in the diner, her parents. She hadn't even seen their faces, but she knew it was them. The way they had stiffened when they heard Max's voice, and stilled completely when they heard Liz. Of course then she saw a small head pop from behind her father to stare at them.

"Oh, My, God."

**AN:** No worries, more to come. Had to sop somewhere or this could go on forever. I'm taking suggestions about what you guys want to see resolved next. Since there will be more to the series, you guys can throw stuff out there and I'll see what I can do.


	43. Connections: 18

**Disclaimer:** I only wish I owned this stuff.  
**AN:** Thanks for the love.

**Chapter 18**

"Oh. My. God."

I was those three little words that yanked Philip and Diane Evans out of the daze that the sound of their son's voice had caught them in. Both of them swung around and looked at their children for the first time in over 4 years.

Diane burst into tears as her son came over and enveloped her in a great hug. "Mom, don't cry. Please don't cry." Max held her close as his dad came to his side and hugged him.

Isobel, however, was still staring at the little boy who was kicking his feet back and forth and watching the group curiously. Faith walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, go say hi to your parents. That's why we're here right?"

"But that's – "

"I get it, but I don't think he's going anywhere without them. That's who he's here with. Go give your dad a hug or something before he thinks you don't love him anymore."

Izzy nodded and ran over to throw herself in her father's arms.

(&)

In a house across town another reunion had finally settled down into a comfortable visit. Maria, Michael and Kyle were sitting in Jim and Amy Valenti's living room talking about the things in each other's lives that they had missed.

"So, when did you two get married?" Amy asked her daughter from her place on her own husband's lap. She had been devastated when Maria had gone missing and it had taken a long time for her to believe the reason why. Jim had been there for her throughout. Even when she didn't believe, even when she hated him for his part in the secrets and lies. How could you not love the man?

"It's almost our first anniversary. We were in Wales visiting Isobel. It was beautiful. I just wish we had pictures or something."

Jim asked "So, can you tell us where you've been. What you've been doing?"

The three looked at each other for a minute and then Kyle answered. "We found this group, like an international charity group, and all got jobs working with them. We got split up all over the world, and we used fake names up until recently, so that we would be harder to find, but we could keep in contact regularly. I, uh, took a spot in Australia, Izzy works in Wales, Max and Liz are in Ohio, and Maria and Michael are in Florida, but they are on the road most of the time."

Michael nodded. "We go all over the world. It's fun."

Amy and Jim shared a look. That was …. vague, but it was something. It was also telling. It was enough information that they could be found with a bit of effort, but it would take time. They still felt there were people after them, but they weren't nearly as scared about it as they had been. Jim wondered what had changed to give them that extra feeling of security.

The group chatted happily together for a while before they decided to go meet up with Liz and the others at the diner.

(&)

The family hug lasted for ages, until finally Jason had had enough. "Nana, why are you crying?"

Liz and Faith, who were keeping Alex occupied, turned and watched as Max got a good look at the child. As he gave his father a confused look, Diane moved to reassure her grandson. "I'm just really happy. Like when you made that big poster at school with my name on it. Remember?"

Jason nodded and smiled.

Diane cleared her throat and turned to the rest of the room. "Jason, this is my daughter Isobel. We told you all about her. And next to her is my son Max, your daddy."

Max knelt down in front of his son with an awed air about him. "Hi, Jason. I haven't seen you since you were a little baby. You even had a different name then."

Jason nodded sagely. "I know, Nana told me that bad men wanted to hurt you, so you ran away to hide. Are the bad men gone now?"

"Most of them, but I'm not hiding anymore." Max said as he looked at his parents.

"So you can come and live with us now?" Jason looked at his father with hopeful little eyes.

Max smiled sadly. "Not exactly. I have a home already. In fact, I have more people for you to meet. " Max turned and motioned Liz and Alex over with his head. "This is my wife, Liz. Her parents own this diner. And this is Alex. He's your little brother."

Jason, who had deflated slightly, seemed to light up. "Really? Cool!! Can we color some more?"

Max was a little confused, but nodded, and the boys sat down and pulled out all of the things that had already been packed up to begin coloring.

About that time was when Jeff Parker poked his head out of the kitchen to see what the ruckus was that his waitress was talking about. It only took one peek for him to run up the stairs to his home and drag his wife out and down to the dining area.

"Lizzy!" they both yelled as the grabbed their baby girl up in a hug.

Liz was the one who cried this time. "Oh, god, I've missed you guys so much."

Jeff grabbed his daughter's face. "Elizabeth Parker, where have you been? Do you have any idea how much we worried about you. Running off with that boy and your friends. What were you thinking?"

Liz blanched slightly. He had said it softly, and quietly, but there was an underlying anger there. "I know you were worried, but I had to go. It wasn't safe for me to be here. I came back as soon as I knew it would be. And I stayed with Max because I loved him. It was the only thing that felt completely right."

Nancy piped up. "That boy had led you to nothing but trouble. The only place you are safe is as far away from him as possible. It's not too late. Come home, stay. We have your room just like it was. You can go to college, start over."

Liz shook her head. Her parents just didn't understand the situation, and she feared they never would. "I can't do that. I have a son to take care of, friends, a life. "

Jeff looked over to Max and his family, who were blocking any view of Alex, and whispered. "Bring the baby. We'll work something out. He doesn't have to know the havoc and fear that living with Max causes."  


Liz shook her head again and backed away from her parents. "No way. I'm not running out on my husband and my job and my home. And I'm certainly not separating my son from his family."

Alex ran over to his mom then and pulled on the bottom of her shirt. "Mommy, I have a big brother. Just like Diana."

Liz smiled at him and picked him up. "You sure do. Hey, do you remember the picture we have at home of my mom and dad? Well this is them. This is your Grandpa Jeff and your Grandma Nancy. Say hi."

Alex said a shy hello before he squirmed out of his mother's arms and ran back to the rest of his family.

Nancy sighed. "He's beautiful."

Liz looked at her parents. "And he's smart, and sweet, and happy. So am I. Yes, things were hard for a while, but we found a place for ourselves in the world. I'm not giving that up. I know you think you know what's best for me, and you may even be right. But I make my own decisions. Max didn't brainwash me, and he's not controlling me. I have a beautiful home, and happy family, a rewarding job, great friends. I couldn't be happy anywhere else, and you need to finally accept that." With that she returned to the family and a hug from Philip.

After that things were quiet and a bit tense, until the other half of their family came in. They brought with them the joy of their reunion and more hugs and hellos.

After a few minutes of explanations so vague that they were totally useless, the group decided to move their reunion to the Evans home. They got there and were trading small stories about the kids and weddings and superficial things. The gang was starting to wonder when the hard questions were going to come. That was about the time that Liz remembered that Faith hadn't been introduced to anyone yet.

"I'm so sorry Faith. I feel so much like you belong that sometimes I forget that you don't know anyone from before."

Faith smile widely at her friend. It was nice to just belong. Max and Liz were closer to her than almost anyone in the world, and she didn't have the baggage with them that she did with the others. "No Problem. This is a family thing."

Liz smiled back. "Hey everybody!" She turned to the group crowded into the Evans living room. Everyone was there, except her parents, and she knew they were curious who this woman who had come along with them was. "This is Faith. She is one of my very best friends and Alex's honorary aunt."

Faith just smiled and waved with a "Hey" and decided to go keep an eye on Alex and his brother, who were playing in Jason's room. This left the others to the inquisition.

"How did you know it was safe to come home?"

Max looked at his dad for a minute and then said. "There are others that are kind of like us. They are here from other worlds. They have contact with some government people who gave them permission to come live here, and we met with them and worked out something so that we are protected."

Philip sat forward in his chair a bit. "So you're all cooperating with the government after what they did to you?"

Max nodded. "That was a rogue group, from what we found out, and they had no authority to be doing what they did. These guys are the real deal, and they are an honest group. I'm not worried that they will turn on us, or take advantage. There may still be some people who would, but there is no point hiding when there are bigger guns protecting you. Plus we have some other friends watching our backs, and they are way scarier than anything the Special Unit could ever imagine."

"Do these people know about Tess? About Jason?"

Max nodded again. "We told them everything we knew. Even a few things that I don't think we told you about. I can't remember if we told you about the others. It's been so long, and we have told the story a few times lately, but there were others, others exactly like us, they were us. There were copies of us, dupes. All four of us, only with the memories of who we were before. There was a lot of scheming, backstabbing and hate between them. Eventually there was only one left, Ava. She's Tess's twin basically. She is a sweet, honest girl." He looked at Jim. "She's who we all wished Tess had been. She got involved with the people we work for, in another division. It was quite a shock to run into her. Anyway, she got involved with the government before we did, and she's perfectly happy with the arrangement. She even lives in Colorado where all the Air Force bases are. And she has never done anything to hurt anyone, before you even ask."

Michael snorted slightly and the parents all looked at him hard. He shrugged. "it's nothing."

Isobel sighed. "That's not her fault, and she didn't hurt anyone. Everyone is pretty happy actually."

Maria giggled. "You did nearly have an aneurysm over it though."

Isobel just rolled her eyes.

"What, what happened?" Amy asked.

Kyle snickered slightly. "We had this conference a few months back and that's when we met up with her. She caused 5 women to get pregnant, including my boss and hers, who are sisters."

Jim was totally lost. "How the hell did she do that?"

"It's a chemical reaction. She was, still is, giving off a pheromone or something that kicks the reproductive system into overdrive. Only seemed to work on women who weren't actively trying to prevent pregnancy though."

"So there is some kind of walking fertility idle roaming Colorado. Didn't anyone try to fix it?" asked Amy.

Liz cut in. "It's a side effect. It will go away on its own in a couple of weeks, and nobody was going to ask her to fix it."

"A side effect of what?" Diane asked.

"She's pregnant." answered Max. "She's due soon, and it should go away when her own body normalizes from that."

Diane sat forward with her husband and said, "That reminds me. Jason was supposed to be totally human, and we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary with him, but what about Alex? Has he shown any signs of powers?"

"He's only shown telekinesis," Liz answered, "but we haven't been actively testing him or anything. He has a friend who is telekinetic as well and they use their powers to play together, but other than that he doesn't really use it. We're planning on getting into that when he's older."

They all talked for a few minutes until Maria stood suddenly. "This isn't going to work." She paced for a minute as the group watched and then she stopped in front of her mother. "Me and Michael, we live in Tampa. Temple Terrace to be exact. We share a big house with our boss and another girl who is on our team. We wanted to buy a place of our own last year, but we aren't home enough right now to justify it." She looked to Jim. "Kyle lives in this big house full of teenage girls in Melbourne. He manages the finances and fixes the cars while his bosses do the household stuff and deal with the girls themselves." She moved over to the Evans'. "Izzy has the household part of that same job in Cardiff, and Max and Liz run a house in Cleveland. I just can't take the vagueness anymore. The government isn't after us anymore and there hasn't been even a whisper of aliens after us in a few years. Maybe they lost us, maybe they all died off or went home, and maybe they're too scared of the people we work for to mess with us anymore. I don't know. But I'm sick and tired of lying and half truths. We're not going to tell you about the people we work with, they have their own secrets, but it's time to be up front about us, at least with our family."

And so they did. They told the story of their time on the road, personal moments, things that they had wanted to share for so long. They explained about demons and vampires, and that they helped to defend people against them. Maria told her mother about the terrifying things that had been done to her during her kidnapping and the result of that, she even demonstrated a bit of magic for them. They had the openness with each other that they had craved as teens, and they enjoyed and savored every minute of it.

(&)

Much later came the harder parts.

Liz went back to her parents' house and explained everything to them. As she expected, they didn't believe her. They even threatened to have her committed and take her son, for his own safety. They had expected her to at least try to bargain her way out of it. That had been the point of the threat, to scare her into seeing things their way. Unfortunately Liz knew that they couldn't do any such thing. Working for the WC had its perks, including excellent free legal counsel and annual psych evaluations with respected doctors. That kind of thing had been tried before, it had never been successful though.

After that fiasco Max and Liz had a long talk with his parents about Jason and what would happen now. They went back and forth for a while but it came down to this: taking him from the people who had raised him for nearly 5 years wouldn't work, and keeping him from his father wouldn't work either. Not to mention the fact that Alex needed to get to know his grandparents as well. Plus there was the issue that, genetically, Ava was Jason's mother.

So it was decided that Philip and Diane would sell their home in Roswell and they would all move into a house in the Cleveland suburbs as a family. Since Philip had retired already there was no work conflict for him and it would be a fresh start with no small town gossip about the family. The issue with Ava was put on the back burner, but Max assured his parents that Ava would be happy to be Jason's aunt, and wouldn't cause trouble for them.

Amy and Jim were delighted to find out that the kids could visit freely now and made them promise to do so. Neither of them had ever expected their children to stay in Roswell much past their graduation anyway. Now they were safe and had security, which was all they could hope for.


	44. Connections: 19

**Chapter 19**

It was 6:27pm when Ava went into labor, sitting at dinner with her family.

The family itself had grown in leaps and bound in the last few years. Dawn had adopted Jonas and his friends, Spike had returned to the fold, with Vi in tow, and Ava herself had come. With all of that plus the birth of AJ and the impending arrival of quite a few more, things were getting crowded.

So it was that they were gathered in the large dining room of the Rest eating the huge meal that Andrew had made for them. Giles was sitting at one end of the large table with AJ on his lap. Jenny and Jon were sitting on one side of him while Willow and Cassie were on the other. Jonas sat at the other end of the table with Dawn on his left side and Spike and Vi on his right. Buffy and Xander were next to Dawn and Andrew and Ava were next to Vi. The only one missing was Faith, who had gone to Roswell to help her friends, but was sorely missed by her family.

Everyone was having a great time. Small conversations here and there with larger loud ones overlapping them. Laughs and smiles all around. Suddenly Ava stiffened and dropped the fork that she had been holding. Nobody really noticed at first, until AJ started crying and jump from his grandpa's lap to run to her. The room stopped and Andrew grabbed him before he could start to climb on Ava.

"What's wrong bug?" he asked as he held the squirming child.

"Ava's hurt." AJ muttered, confusing the group.

Andrew looked over at his oddly quiet girlfriend. "Are you hurt?"

Ava looked at him for a second before she answered. "Um, yeah, that hurt a lot actually. Carolyn told me that it would be gradual, but that was like….."

Andrew put AJ down and held Ava's hand. "What's wrong?"

Ava reached for the boy and placed him on the table in front of her. "I'm fine." She said to AJ as she smiled at him and dried his tears. She then turned to Andrew and answered him. "I had a contraction. It startled me and it did hurt. I thought that – " She broke off and then grimaced. "And my water just broke."

Everyone tried not to panic, but this was happening at a very accelerated pace and they weren't sure what to do. They had things set up at a local hospital with the idea that this would be a normal delivery, like Liz's had been. However, Ava going from zero to childbirth was not a good sign of that. Finally Jon called Carolyn and she decided to have the delivery at the base, just in case.

Twenty minutes later they were cramming into an elevator on the way down to the infirmary. When the doors opened they ran straight into Jack and Vala who were chatting happily on their way to another level. Ava was hit with a strong contraction and nearly fell to the floor, but was caught by Jack. Unfortunately when they made contact Jack was hit with a strong psychic backlash from Ava and tumbled to the ground with her on top of him.

"What the hell." he nearly yelled when the effect finally stopped.

"I, I, I don't know. That's never happened before." Ava was startled and grasping for answers as Jon and Andrew helped her back up and kept a hold of her arms for support.

"Let's just get you to the doc luv, we'll figure it out there. This ain't really the place you want to be having your baby." Spike said as he shooed her and her minders down the hall.

"We'll come too. Jack needs to be looked at when someone has a chance." Vala said. When she caught the dirty look the retired General shot at her she scowled at him. "And just for that I'm calling your wife away from her little friends in the lab." She turned and strode regally behind the main group, well as regally as she could anyway.

(&)

It was three hours exactly, from the time that Ava had her first contraction to the time of Ryan Wells' birth. It was a hectic and scary thing. Ava could not be touched by anyone, except eventually Willow, during her labor. Everyone who tried was knocked flat the way Jack had been.

It started out only happening during the contractions, but eventually it was constant. In pain and bereft of any physical comfort, Ava's fear overtook her and her more psychically inclined power went haywire. At one point she mind warped the whole room into something from Antar, with her mother there to hold her hand. That was when Willow decided that something needed to be done and placed herself with Ava so that she was sitting on the bed and Ava was leaning back into a hug, with the red head holding both of her hands for comfort.

Willow was able to hold back the psychic assault with her mental shields, but just barely, and was exhausted by it. This helped tremendously, but Ava still had to give birth without the aid of drugs or any hands on medical help. As it came down to the wire Dawn was able to help reinforce Andrew's own magical shields so that he was able to deliver his son, with direction from Carolyn.  


And so it was that Ryan Jonathan Wells was born at 9:27pm to relieved and terrified parents, an unconscious witch, a room full of freaked out medical staff and a pissed off Jack O'Neal one cubical over.

**AN:** That's all for now folks. There is a side story for this that deals with Buffy and Xander's relationship. It's posted as "Follow Through" in the regular Buffy section, since there is barely any crossover to it, and that's just Kyle's presence a ways in. There will be more posted here when I get to the next story in this series. Thanks for reading and, hopefully, reviewing.


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